(c) The

CONFIDENTIAL

Selection on merit

/ Comparatively small number of places available

coupled with the system of nomination

inevitably limits the number of interests that

can be represented. We cannot ignore this

aspect of the matter altogether but could we

not place even more emphasis than we do now on

individual merit and so get away, at least

in public, from the problem of having to

balance in the membership of the Councils

the claims of rival organisations such as

the Universities ? Invidious as it might

be in so compact a community for the Governor

to have to choose Mr A rather than Mr A plus

Mr B, we are not convinced that it might not be

right for him to do so. If we adopted this

approach, the reply to complaints that Mr B

had not been selected would be that Mr A's

appointment had been made on a purely personal

(a

Such

as opposed to representational) basis.

arrangements would have the additional advantages

of opening the way to the appointment of one

or two elected members of the Urban Council

(who would not be appointed simply because

they had been elected to the Council) and to

the removal of the "right of nomination" by

the Chamber of Commerce and JPs.

(a) Appointment of younger men of potential

If satisfactory arrangements on the lines suggested in (a), (b) and (c) could be worked

lasier

out it would then be persible to consider

the appointment on trial of one or two

younger men of potential who may not yet

have "arrived" but who may be sufficiently

well-known and respected in their own

particular sections of the community to be

4

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