CAB129-37 — Page 296

APPENDIX IV

MEMORANDUM

Page 296

Presented by the Chairman of the

Overseas Food Corporation to

The Rt. Hon. John Strachey, M.P., Minister of Food

on the

TRANSFER OF THE EAST AFRICAN GROUNDNUTS SCHEME TO THE OVERSEAS FOOD CORPORATION

1. The Overseas Food Corporation, at the request of the Minister of Food, took over responsibility for the direction of the East African Groundnuts Scheme from February 29, 1948. From that date the Managing Agency become answer- able to the Corporation instead of the Minister of Food. And on March 31, 1948, the Corporation took over from the Managing Agents the day to day direction of operations in East Africa.

2. This decision to transfer responsibility to the Overseas Food Corporation as soon as practicable was in harmony with the early discussions between the Ministry of Food and the United Africa Company who agreed to undertake the duties of the Managing Agents for the time required by His Majesty's Govern- ment to establish the Overseas Food Corporation. Under the original arrange- ments the Managing Agents with only a transitory responsibility were alone able to exercise the functions of management while the Members Designate of the Corporation could merely advise. Although the Members Designate received full and free co-operation from the Managing Agents, and their advice was invariably sought in matters concerning policy, this interim arrangement could not be continued indefinitely without weakening the temporary Management's power of decision and action.

3 While administrative efficiency made the speedy transfer of responsibility to the Overseas Food Corporation desirable, the serious nature of the many diffi- culties being encountered in East Africa made it imperative that the responsibility for day to day decisions should be in the hands of the people who were to be ultimately responsible for the Scheme. It had become apparent from an early. date that operations could not go according to the plans envisaged by the Wakefield Mission's report. The principal contributory factors to this which could not have been foreseen at the time the Mission reported were, first, the condition of the essential mechanical equipment-the heavy tractors obtained from surplus war stores--on which the whole operation depended was much worse than had been anticipated. Many machines required a thorough overhaul before they could be kept at work. Spares for these overhauls were not readily available. Second, the technical problems of clearing the Kongwa thorn bush and preparing the ground for sowing proved much more serious than had been anticipated. These difficulties were aggravated by the fact that Kongwa is at the end of a long and difficult line of communication through the very congested port of Dar-es-Salaam. It took months to shift stores of all kinds to Kongwa from overseas.

4. These various difficulties were apparent and dominated the situation when Mr. Plummer and General Harrison, together with Mr. Faure, of the Managing Agency, paid a visit to East Africa in the autumn of 1947. To avert the risk of an administrative breakdown it was then decided to reorientate the immediate programme by bringing the scope of operations more in line with the actual

Page 296

Page 296

95