NOVEL CONTROL SCHEME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 December 1940, Page 6

NOVEL CONTROL SCHEME

BUSINESS MANAGER APPOINTED FOR ARMY. DEVELOPMENT IN AUSTRALIA.' The Australian Government has made a break with convention by appointing a business manager to control Army expenditure and costs. The appointee is Mr Allen Charles Lewis, managing director of Concrete Constructions Ltd. and its associated companies throughout Australia and South Africa. He is 49 years of age and. though a native of Kent, has been resident in Australia since 1912. His business experience is threefold, as he has been associated with Government financial administration. The concrete construction for which his companies have been responsible throughout Australia and South Africa amount to possibly £10,000.000 to £12,000.000. In his new appointment Mr Lewis will accept no salary, nor will he carry out any defence contracts in Australia during his term of office.

The new Minister for the Army (Mr Spender) intends to make efficient administration of the Army not only his constant objective, but his personal responsibility. “In demanding the highest efficiency of the Army, and of those entrusted with its leadership, management and control,” he says. ”1 make no suggestion of failure in the past, or of faults at the present. There is only one objective—immediate and constant efficiency, and the utmost efficiency, increasing as the field and the need increase. There must, and shall be, no loose ends.”