consisting of all (or some) of them.
the Unofficial Members of Council, with the new Colonial Secretary (whoever he may be) as Chairman.
This would be exactly similar to the Committee, which recommended increases of salary in 1890 (see par. 7 of despatch 2848), and would have the advantage of getting outside experience & impartiality in the person of the Chairman.
There is no necessity for any other on the Committee beyond
(Dece
Official
Chairman
and Sir W. Rollins
Committee
does not object to a Committee
in which the Unofficials have a majority.
30 Sep.
I ventured in the first instance to suggest that the appointment of a local retrenchment Committee was undesirable (a) because it seemed to me to be a snub to the Governor and a concession to a not scrupulous opposition (b) because if retrenchment was really aimed at, the Governor and Mr. O'Brien were already setting to work, and such a committee was likely not to help but to hinder them.
The Secretary of State, however, decided that such a committee should be appointed, and the first question to settle is whether or not this correspondence makes it either necessary or desirable to reverse that decision.
It seems to me that it cannot well be reversed and that something must be done in the way of giving effect to it.
In deciding what can be done, and in carefully considering the correspondence enclosed in this despatch, it must be remembered that the Secretary of State's despatch is regarded by Mr. Whitehead as a triumph of the Unofficials over the Officials. In his letter of the 8th of August (Encl. 9) he says to the Secretary of State "the views of the Unofficial members have prevailed over the views of the officials". It is unfortunate that the matter is regarded as a party question, but so it is.
Strongly, and this fact must carefully be borne in mind in coming to some conclusion.
Nor is it clear whether Lord Ripon had any objection (according to his despatch) to an unofficial majority on the committee, and the Governor suggested acted upon it.