to begin with, on the chance of promotion. It is for this reason that the door-has been left open for the promotion of a clerk from B to A, and also because we do not think it would be in the interest of the Service to preclude Portuguese from obtaining an appointment with a salary of $100 a month or over. There are some very useful Portuguese, and seeing that a Portuguese would not be likely to be successful in competition with educated Europeans, it might be inconvenient to really not be able to promote a really useful man. Shutting the door to the A cadre altogether to Portuguese might have the effect of making it impossible to obtain good material as heretofore for the B clerkships.
While, however, providing for such promotion, we think it should be the exception and that, as a rule, the A cadre should be supplied by competitive examination locally, and by selection in England. The candidates in local competitive examinations should, we think, be subject to nomination by the Governor.
We consider the competitive examination the fairest to all, and we expect that it will have the effect of securing the appointment of Europeans in cases in which no objection can be raised. It will moreover relieve the Governor of the insidious task of selecting one candidate from a number of candidates.
As regards the selection of A clerks from England, we recommend that it be left to the discretion of the Secretary of State whether he will appoint direct or hold an examination. We do not doubt that the Colonial Office, if applied to for a clerk, would often be able to select from their own staff.
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