OUTWARD TELEGRAM
53723/3FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES
Code
29
No.1599
TO HONG KONG Sir A. Grantham)
Sant 15th November, 1949. 01.00 hrs.
Confidential.
My alegram No.1562 Confidential of 8th November.
Fublic Services Commission.
Much regret that, in the correspondence arising from the use of the word "all" in paragraph 172 of the Report of the Salaries Commission, your attention was not drawn to the fact that there is a certain range of posts (i.e. virtually all super scale posts) vacancies in which you are bound to refer to me under Colonial Regulation 24 and for which I am committed to consider candidates throughout the Colonial Service, and for which the Public Services Commission could not be in a position to know the field of suitable candidates.
As I imagine that considerations adduced in your confidential letter Sec. 9/4518/49 of 16th June had relation primarily to new entrants, I do not know whether you would feel equal difficulty in excluding these senior "promotion" posts from the purview of the Committee (which would be the most satisfactory arrangement from my point of view). If not, what arrangement would you propose to ensure that vacancies in such posts are in fact referred to me in such a way that local resentment would not be caused if and when I select a candidate from elsewhere even when a competent candidate has been recommended by the Commission?