THE HON. THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH:
Adverting to our conversation of this morning at which I informed you of my intention to resign from the offices of Commissioner of Public Health and Principal Medical Officer, I should be glad if you will peruse the attached correspondence which will explain my attitude. My reasons are clearly set out in the papers attached as Annexure A. and in particular I command for your attention the final paragraph of my memorandum of 2nd October, 1946.
In deference to your expressed wish I have now decided to withhold my formal resignation until you have had an opportunity of referring the matter to the Hon. Premier after his return from Canberra.
As you will see from the correspondence this matter has been raised previously from time to time, and it has always hitherto been settled on a basis of uneasy compromise and assurances from Ministers and the Under Secretary that my status actually is, in respect of health administration, that stipulated in the terms upon which I accepted appointment.
I find, however, that there is no stability in this arrangement and I feel that the whole basis of the Department’s organisation requires overhauling and renovation. If the Government is able to meet the terms upon which I accepted appointment I shall be happy to continue in office. If it cannot do this, I am sure I shall be unable to give service satisfactory either to the Government or to myself and it would be well for me to resign.
The issue has been raised again as a result of my coming into possession yesterday, for the first time, of correspondence attached as Annexure B. which has hitherto been concealed from me in the Under Secretary’s private draw. From this correspondence it is clear that with or without Ministerial approval and in spite of Ministerial assurances, it is the policy and the intention of the Under Secretary at every opportunity and if necessary by stealth to subordinate the professional head to lay control.
Incidentally I have previously had no intimation written or verbal, of any such decision by the Government as in inferred in paragraph 3 of the Under Secretary’s letter of 10th June.
It may, Sir, appear prima facie to be trivial how correspondence is addressed. I have previously emphasised however, the addressee is ultimately the only individual in a position to determine which office shall attend to the correspondence.
I am not prepared, as one charged with certain responsibilities by Act of Parliament, to risk decisions being made without my knowledge by a subordinate officer to whom I have not expressly given the authority.
Two years or more of trial have convinced me that the Department cannot function efficiently and amicably as present constituted. It is my own conviction as apparently it was the conviction of my predecessors, that this would be true whoever occupied the office of Commissioner of Public Health. It will be certainly true while I have that office and if it is the Government’s policy that the Department must continue in its present structure, the best interests of all concerned will be served by my withdrawal.
Cecil Cook
COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC HEALTH
CEC/PB
13 August 1948