Rebuilding Britain: A Survey of Problems of Reconstruction After the World War

by Sir Alfred Hopkinson

We shall not recover at all except by immediate, determined and, above all, methodical action. Small economies, as Mr. Gladstone long ago pointed out, are not to be despised. It is no doubt right to put up notices in Government offices not to put coal on the fire after three o'clock, but these savings will not go far when half a million can be thrown away on the bogs and rocks round Loch Doon with no useful result of any kind, and yet nobody seems to be made responsible for this waste, nor can anyone say why it was allowed. We hear again and again of improvident contracts and extravagant purchases, and also of absurd cost incurred in supervising minute details. Why cannot clear general authority to act on the spot in certain matters be given to some responsible person, instead of instituting a system of checks which often cause great delay as well as expense? A water pipe at a camp wants some slight repair, costing less than half a sovereign. No one there has authority to give an order, a well-paid official must be sent a day's journey to inspect, and incurs expenses far exceeding the cost of the work to be done. Why is good agricultural land taken for a site when there is plenty of land near which is waste or of little value? Why does a well-known firm which has a telephone and a post-bag think it worth while to pay £15,000 for an introduction to a Government Department? Why have we heard again and again of prices paid for goods greatly in excess of the price for which they could be obtained from well-established firms in the trade? Such instances could be multiplied, but enough has come to light publicly, and been proved, to show how essential it is to have

some authority to deal with such matters and stop the leakage which becomes a torrent. Apparently there has been an improvement lately in many respects, but we are yet a long way from perfection.

There will be an immense dead weight of influence against economy owing to the fact that so many persons are interested in keeping up and increasing expenditure. As was said in the debate above referred to, "It looks as if London were becoming a huge bureaucratic town where everyone will be working in some Government department or other." One might say everyone of all ages, remembering a remark made by someone entering a building near Whitehall, and seeing the crowd of girls and boys in the corridor, "I thought I was coming to a Government office, but it seems to be a crêche."

For efficiency as well as for economy a thorough revision of the executive departments of the Government is necessary. There is no doubt that the present system has grown up at haphazard. It would be difficult for anyone to form a clear idea of the duties assigned to or powers conferred on the various departments, to say who in each department has authority to do certain acts, or is responsible for seeing that they are done properly.

To get the best account of the executive departments in England as they existed before the War we must go to America. Professor A.L. Lowell's book may be taken as the standard work on that subject. The chapters on the Executive Departments, the Treasury, and the Civil Service give a clear and interesting account of the administrative arrangements of the British Government. He shows how new departments have grown up from time to time to meet some new want as it arose, but their powers are often ill defined. Various Boards were created, but in some cases it became an established practice that the Board should not meet, or a Committee of Council was set up and the work carried on under the supposed direction of "my Lords." It was a mere fiction. There has been no clear and consistent scheme for distributing the

work of Government between the various departments on any intelligible principles.

All are spending money, some of them enormous sums. Staffs are growing inordinately, much of the work is duplicated, much consists in communications with other departments which would be unnecessary if the work of each were better defined.

It should be clear in each department who has authority to decide any particular question, to incur expenditure, to enter into binding agreements. The executive government of the country is in a chaotic state, relieved to some extent by the good sense and good feeling of the members of the great army of officials who carry it on. No one can deny that the Civil Service is not only pure, but, taken as a whole, its members individually are both able and industrious. It is better organisation that is required. Some of the new Ministries ought to be scrapped directly the War is over, and the business of others continued only so far as necessary for winding up. But these new departments will die hard.

Since the War new departments have grown up like mushrooms, sometimes without any clear statement of their functions or powers being made, and there has not been time to settle them at leisure by a course of practice. The result is overlapping, friction which would be intolerable but for the good-natured forbearance which English people have for a state of confusion, waste of time and money in sending minutes, and in correspondence between different departments, and often delays which have had most unfortunate results. Does anyone know exactly what are the respective functions and powers of the Ministry of Reconstruction, the Ministry of Labour, the Board of Trade, the Ministry of Pensions, the Ministry of National Service, the Board of Works, the Ministry of Food Control, the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, the War Trade Department, the Home Office, the Local Government Board, the Committee on Food Production, the Restriction of Enemy Supply Committee, the Priorities Com

mittees, the Ministry of Munitions, etc., etc. The list might easily be extended.