Booker and I have now had a chance, between us, to see most of the
Australians appointed in the last few months to the Control
Commission for Germany. Some we have seen on the spot, while two
or three others have been over in London for short leave or on
duty.

The general impression I get is that although most of them are
reasonably satisfied with the actual conditions of work and living
in Germany, they all feel a certain general disillusionment and
frustration as they find on the whole that, although the post on
paper may be a reasonably responsible one, the scope for any real
influence on general policy is very restricted and that they are
just rather small bits in a complicated and unwieldy machine.

What they say confirms the opinion I have formed myself and which
is also constantly expressed by others who have been in the
British zone, that the British element of the Control Commission
badly lacks any clear line of guidance from the top and that it
suffers at all levels from mediocrity and excessively bureaucratic
methods. It had been hoped that when the changeover from Military
Government to C.C.G. had been carried through, as it now has to a
large extent, some of the main earlier faults would disappear.

This may certainly be so in the sense that earlier friction and
duplication between the civil and military sides has diminished,
but as against this the recruitment into C.C.G. of large numbers
of demobilised military personnel has meant a carry over into
C.C.G. of Army outlook and methods, all right in themselves from
the point of view of the occupying forces but not what is wanted
in the extremely difficult job of the civil administration of
20,000,000 people without any administrative means of their own.

Lauder [1], who is on the technical administration side at Minden,
has been over here this week with a certain amount of useful
information. Among the matters he is interested in is the proposal
of which you may have heard already from another source to bring
to Australia for a limited period a number of German scientists
and technologists. [2] I think Cochrane has been interested in
this and it may have already had some consideration in Canberra.

While there are obvious local objections, Lauder points out that
the opportunity may be an important one and may not last much
longer, as British, Americans and Russians are drawing on those
people at present available in Germany at an increasing rate.

Lauder also said that under cover of visits of inspection
organised in Germany a considerable amount of quiet investigation
is going on on behalf of private commercial and industrial
interests in this country. Here again, there may be some in
Australia who would be interested in this sort of opportunity.

Bill Lockwood [3] was also over recently and left with us a note
on food conditions in the zones he had observed. I enclose a copy.

All the Australians I have spoken to have reported that the
Commission authorities they deal with are quite open with
information, and help quite readily in providing data which may be
of interest to us. As they get more settled in we may expect this
to be a useful addition to our sources of information.

J. D. L. HOOD