[Shane Lovell]

Dear David

Sorry for not following on with our previous discussion regarding the financial system for equipment purchase and allocation. I have been out of town on leave.

In your final comments you raised the issue of whether WD Nos had the function of identifying vehicles purchased from the WO. My personal opinion is that this is not the case. I have seen no evidence to support your theory, which doesn’t mean that it is wrong, rather that we haven’t found any evidence, if it still exists.

Rather, I tend to believe that if applied, your system would be highly rigid and require considerable co-ordination between the high level finance system all the way down to the end users. However, when you look at what was happening regarding allocations to theatres and issues to down to unit level the picture is chaotic at the least. At the unit level I am basing my comments on various Australian unit experiences in the Middle East noted in their war diaries

The other question I have about your theory is what time period do you think this applied to? I would suggest that it certainly doesn’t apply post British Purchasing Commission.

Cheers

Shane