CO129-624-14 Finances- relief stores- Hangover stores and Siamese free rice 1-7-1948 - 31-12-1951 — Page 36

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civil use did arrive. War Office stores were shipped on War Office Bills of Lading of which it was rare for Govern- ment to receive copies, and were sometimes consigned to or received by the R.A.S.C., R.A.0.C. and R.E. In the case of food supplies it is believed that most of the errors were corrected, but that this was not the case in respect of engineering and ordnance stores. Other discrepancies arose in respect of motor transport largely because new vehicles intended for Civil Affairs were often retained for use by one of the Services, while a smaller number of used vehicles were later made available in their place.

It should be noted that the prices quoted by the War Office are for new vehicles whereas many of those delivered were far from being new. In another case cement intended for deliv- erv to Government was received by R. E. and issued subsequent- lv on repayment.

6.

The identification of stores was also compli– cated by the arrival of goods in satisfaction of Crown Agent indents, the documents for which were delayed for many months, and by the fact that a necessarily scratch and frequently changing staff was somewhat overwhelmed by the flood of stores received in mid 1946.

7.

In these circumstances it has not been pos- sible so to correlate the items as described in the summary of stores supplied by the War Office, now attached as Appendix TII, with the records of the Civil Affairs Branch and of this Government, so as to enable a definite and detailed statement to be prepared with regard to the dis- posal of the stores said to have been despatched to Hong Kong.

8.

Items which it has been possible to identify with the descriptions and quantities given in the War Office lists as having been received have been underlined in red in these lists (Annendix TII). Items which cannot be positive- ly identified according to the description and quantities given in the War Office lists have been underlined in blue. In the absence of a comprehensive list of consignments by individual vessels with names and approximate dates of depar- ture, all that can he said in these cases is that some, or nerhans all, of the articles of a similar, but not necessar- ily identical, nature were received in Hong Kong. The remaining items which have not been underlined in red or blue cannot be traced as having been received into stock. The value of these items is approximately £300,000. It is assumed that if these stores did reach Hong Kong they were diverted for use by military establishments. But it must be remembered that in those early davs direct shipment was not possible to Hong Kong and that these stores had necessarily to be transhipped in India or Singapore.

9.

In the circumstances, it is considered that at this stage a detailed accounting to provide any close indica- tion of the use to which stores were mut, or on which losses were incurred, is not practicable. It is suggested that in order to establish the net cost to H.M. Government of this difficult and large-scale operation, it is reasonable to account for the expenditure by deducting from the gross expenditure, the cash paid and credits accruing to H.M. ment, and the value of allocations of stores without charge, and so to estimate the value of stores which were probably retained by Service establishments and the inevitable margin

It will be seen of loss incurred in a movement of this sort. from Appendix I that on this basis it is estimated that stores

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