maximum advantage of the fact that exploitation of the woods could happen in an unregulated way. This state of affairs carried on from 1935 to 1940. It wasn't until after a government director was appointed to its board from 1940 and the Public Enquiry into its affairs took place in 1944 that Williams's activities were finally controlled. On 4 June 1935 in a very confidential letter marked "secret and personal", Sir John Hope Simpson wrote that 200 families were being settled at the Alexis River site. Less than two weeks after Simpson wrote the above letter, the Commission of Government had supposedly taken over complete financial control of all properties in both of Williams' companies. That Simpson had moved so quickly in making such preparations is in direct contrast to the previously supportive way in which he had dealt with the company. In a letter on 5 July 1935 to Bridges, Clutterbuck at the Dominions Office wrote that plans were in sight for a permanent settlement. Two weeks later, Simpson wrote that the loggers were earning great wages of about $3.00 per day. In fact they were only earning at the very most about $1.30 per day. By September of that year, Simpson revealed he was looking for excuses to leave the scene in Newfoundland altogether. By the end of 1936 in Port Hope Simpson, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Company had arranged for the men to build themselves about 60 small houses for rent but most Labradorians chose not to live in the company housing due to their rental costs, living instead about a quarter of a mile away on the opposite side of Black Water brook. In justification of the good works done by Williams, his counsel at the public enquiry in 1945 emphasised that the company had rendered every possible service at considerable cost to provide work for the people of Newfoundland and the needy families of Labrador. By so doing it was claimed it had adhered to the agreement made with the Commission of Government on 30 April 1934 that the government wished to do everything it could to help develop the Labrador and the company. Williams' counsel claimed that after years of work; the company had stabilised and had built up an efficient unit of workers who took an interest in their work and their employers. By March 1938 Williams felt that government policy towards him