24
extent which at one time, perhaps to a somewhat over-optimistic view,
appeared possible the necessity of honouring the promises made to
for a permanent officers so recalled, namely, that they would be granted home leave
Encl. No. 3.
--(14)
11
after a tour of twelve to eighteen months, has now, as was indeed
foreseen, produced a situation when the number of officers available
for duty in the Colony has fallen below the barest minimum and is
still falling. The number of officers on leave will reach a peak
figure in 1948 when between the months of March and October inclusive
only 21 will be available for duty in the Colony.
7.
The present establishment (including two administrative
officers on. contract) is now filled as may be seen from the table at
Enclosure 3, and there are three officers in training who when they
arrive will be supernumerary to establishment. One third of the
officers have been recruited since the beginning of the war and there
is a decided weakness in the mumbers of officers of medium seniority.
Six officers are away from the Colony on leave or for the reasons
indicated briefly in the table. This number does not include Mr.
H. R. Butters for whom a replacement has been provided, nor Mr.
G. S. Kennedy-Skipton who is under suspension.
8.
For the reasons indicated in the last sentence of paragraph
4 of this despatch I do not consider it would be in the interests of the
service if a large number of very young officers were recruited in the
immediate future. At the same time it is most important that the
situation described at the end of paragraph 6 shall be remedied without
delay. The solution to this apparently insoluble dilemma was suggested
(4)mstosifsift by your circular savingram of 18th May, 1947, and in his telegram
No. 956 of 6th June, Mr. MacDougall therefore requested, in anticipation
of your approval of the overall increase in the approved establishment
as recommended in the present despatch, that three pre-war members of
the Indian Civil Service should be offered appointments to replace
the three officers of medium seniority who lost their lives during the
war. These appointments together with the four on short term contracts