Might I ask the Minister if he has considered the point put to him last night—to give the House information as to the type of board visualised by him; whether it is to be a whole-time board; whether it is to be a board of persons who will be concerned with general policy or whether it is to be a board of experts who will have considerable experience in the ordinary technical management of a transport company?
Might I ask the Minister, also, if he has made up his mind on the matters that were dealt with here yesterday evening in regard to the position of the general manager? As the Minister knows, from all parts of the House the general opinion was that it would not be desirable that the general manager of the company should be a member of the board. The point was made that if the general manager is a member of the bcard it may affect the working of the company seriously because the board may have to consider the general manager's own administration, and it was felt that the board, to some extent, would have their hands tied when discussing the administration of the general manager while the general manager himself was a member of the board.
Further, if the board does its work well, as it should be done, naturally they must, from time to time, call in senior experts or officials of the company. These officials or experts may have a viewpoint completely at variance with the viewpoint of the general manager. The position may be that the viewpoint of a particular expert may be accepted by the board and, in those circumstances, the general manager might feel that had it not been for the representations or the evidence or the information given by the particular expert and member of the company, the board might not have taken or adopted a view contrary to his own particular view. In these circumstances, bad feeling could conceivably arise between the general manager and that particular official or expert. That has been known to happen in many concerns. The general manager, being an ordinary human being with ordinary human reactions, may feel that that particular expert or official should be subjected to supervision that was undesirable and that might, in the long run, lead to his resignation.
I would ask the Minister at this stage to indicate whether he has considered the matter since last night and whether he can now give the House his views on the matters that have been raised on this particular amendment.