J W Booth AUTOBIOGRAPHY c12

Chapter 12 Changes and Chances.
I should have been quite contented with my lot in Middleborough if it had remained the cosy little empire that I took over in 1962, but the Department had changed more in ten years than in the previous hundred and the process was still gaining momentum. Locally, the abolition of the Surveyor post in West Hartlepool and a growing workload had increased the Middleborough establishment to three districts. As the senior of the three Surveyors, and the man in possession, I took the Customs, leaving the excise and the refineries to the other two. Thus I had limited myself to the type of work I liked best, but my old status of a single command had gone for ever.
Happily about this time, the Board decided to strengthen outdoor management by increasing the number of Assistant Collectors in the run-up to the introduction of Value Added Tax. Against all the probabilities I was offered a third promotion interview in 1970 and this time I made it. The interview was totally different from the 1967 disaster but identical to the one in 1968. The panel included the H.Q. heads of establishment and senior outdoor men, and the former were prone to put
'hypothetical' questions to candidates about matters which the board actually had in hand. This was one of several factors which favoured London-based Surveyors who were likely to havegot wind of the matter and the fashionable view on it.
One member asked me my opinion of a proposal to do away with signing-on in time-attendance stations, when I warily suggested that it ought to be retained for overtime purposes at least he clearly disagreed with me, but I heard distinct murmurs of approval from the top of the table where the Collector, London
Port was sitting. You can't lose them all. Perhaps in 1970 I had that little bit of luck that everyone needs in either written examinations or interviews. Perhaps they had lowered their sights.
There were two vacancies in Edinburgh and I took one of them, partly because I had lost too much time already and wanted quick promotion, but mainly because it involved a preliminary period of six months in London, where my sister was gravely ill. She died in May, a few days short of her 50th birthday, on the day before I was due to report to the Chief Inspector's Office. I telephoned an acquaintance in that office, and shortly afterwards the Chief himself came on to offer his sympathy and
agree to delay my reporting as necessary. This was happily typica1 of the Customs and Excise. In examining, Ada's papers, I found that the Home Office had been far less accommodating in dealing with her much greater problems, and positively mean
on her terms for part-time attendance, which was all she could manage in her last couple of years.
It had always been accepted that no-one could aspire to the dizzy heights of the Controlling Grade, Assistant Collectors and upwards, without first spending a period in the C.I.'s office to learn the mysteries of H.Q. Some, like missionaries to West
Africa, went in and never came out again, by 1970, this indoor period had been cut to a token six months and shortly afterwards it was abolished altogether.
The office was divided into Divisions, each dealing with a section of the department's work, such as Customs, Spirit Duties, Hydrocarbon Oils, etc. It was staffed by Principal Inspectors, Senior Inspectors and just plain Inspectors like me, the most junior of the lot, and they all wrote the rules and advised the hoard on their various specialities. There was no clerical back-up staff in these divisions so junior Inspectors were downright dogs bodies. It was such a come down for a Surveyor that several had been known to revert rather than endure it indefinitely I was prepared to live with it for six months, which was more than enough time to spend in this Chatham Barracks of the Customs
I was allocated to Customs 1 Division, presided over by a P.I. aptly named Frankie Frost, who later became a Commissioner an almost unheard of feat at the time. One typed reports on subjects or case papers on which the P.I. had written one's
name, with an indication that the report could be typed or should be submitted in manuscript for vetting by him before it was typed. With Frankie it was always the latter. It was 32 years since this rule had been applied to me as a junior clerical officer and I got a bit neurotic about it. I re-wrote everything several times and then it would come back hacked to bits, usually with phases from my own first draft unconsciously reinstated. The most maddening thing was that Frankie always did correct something, no matter how small, which was patently wrong, so it was difficult to write him off as a nitpicker, even behind his back.
On the other hand there was one occasion when we had issued specia1 directions for dealing with a national dock strike and, after it was over, I had to ring up selected Collectors to see how it had worked out. I scribbled notes of their replies during and after each call and passed these rough notes into Frankie
for his comments. He had them printed and circulated without altering a word. If I cou1d bring myself to write this the same way, I might even get it published.
My overall, impression was that if all the staff in the Division had been withdrawn, Mr. Frost could have coped with the work on his own, probably in half the time. The office of Chief Inspector has since been renamed Controller, Outfield and his
staff merged with the rest of H.Q. without any adverse effect on the work of the whole.
In November I finally reached Edinburgh, but the general expansion of Outfield management had produced vacancies at Middleborough and Newcastle. I applied for both and got the latter in January, 1971. The transfer rules were relaxed for I had avoided moving house to Scotland, which would have disrupted my daughter's education, and was able to learn the role of Assistant Collector in familiar surroundings among peop1e I knew and respected. I had on1y a 1imited time to do this, because by 1972 the Government had taken a firm decision to introduce Va1ue Added Tax, and as this involved a large expansion of the Department it was seen as the highroad to success. There was a general rush to get in on it and I became Assistant Collector, V.A.T. to the Newcastle area.