8
obviously based on the assumption that the posts
in question are normally open only to
Administrative Cadets serving in Hong Kong. The
public convenience is best served by appointing to
a vacant post the most suitable officer available
he may be the senior of the Hong Kong Cadets or he
may not: he may even be serving outside Hong Kong.
It might be argued that even under the agreed grade
system, the public interest is not properly served
if the senior Cadet, assuming that he is generally
efficient, must on the occurrence of a vacancy in
the senior grade be moved up, even though he is not
fitted for the particular post which is vacant. If
there has to be a shuffle round every time a
vacancy occurs, the Government may easily be accused
of subordinating the public interest to that of its
I do not know the case of Mr.Sayer, but
officers.
from what Mr.Rogers says, consideration of his
status seems to have successfully outweighed that of
the public interest.
It is essential that the Secretary
of State should have a free hand in dealing with
is home
vacancies about the administrative time-scale, and
this can be assured only by treating the posts above the time-scale as separate and distinct appointments,
open not only to officers of the Hong Kong Civil
Service, but also to officers serving elsewhere.
it happens that the most suitable officer to fill a
If
technical
Page
❤
technical vacancy is not in the Colonial
Administrative Service and the post comes
into its appropriate Unified Service, there
would be no objection to increasing the
number of purely administrative super-scale
posts in Hong Kong, so as to restore the
balance of prospects for the Administrative
Officers, (see Mr.Cowell's minute of 4/11/37
on the 1937 file). In deciding the suitability
of an officer for the vacancy, consideration
would naturally be given to the special
knowledge of Hong Kong conditions which the
Administrative Officers serving there have,
and I think that that principle, properly
applied should meet Mr.Gent's objections to
the new system.
?
The reply should ask the
Governor to reconsider the question on this
basis.
1365
13th May, 1938.
Page
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