3
377
Secretary's Office and incidentally into that of the various Departments that correspond with it.
On the other hand a Cadet's training is not in the direction of purely clerical work and it would take some time before he became really efficient in that work and if engaged upon it for any considerable length of time he would be apt to lose his knowledge of languages and other qualifications for appointments involving more direct responsibility. If one Officer were not employed for a number of years on the Chief Clerk's work, there would be risk of another disorganization in the routine of the Colonial Secretary's Department such as required before the temporary appointment of a qualified clerk from outside the Colony and the general administration would suffer. I am satisfied that with the changes incident on one-seventh of the members of the Civil Service being always on leave and on their reasonable claims to have some consideration paid to seniority in the matter of the advantages of Acting Appointments, that it would not be possible to count on a Cadet Officer holding the appointment of Chief Clerk in the Colonial Secretary's Office for such a period say 8 to 10 years as would give him a complete knowledge of the history of the various questions which come up periodically in different forms and would so ensure the routine work of the Office being carried through with the utmost despatch and efficiency.
3.
I may mention incidentally that the same question of a permanent Chief Clerk for the Colonial Secretary's Office came up on the Gold Coast while I was administering the Government of that Colony. At the instance of successive Colonial and Acting Colonial Secretaries who represented the