سلنا
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
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C.O. 882
8 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
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Ceylon is actually larger than in the Straits and Federated Malay States and the pro- portion of the higher to the lower appointments very much larger, as shown in the accompanying table. This consideration was present to the petitioners from the Straits Settlements in 1900, for they pointed out that at that date "whereas in Ceylon the per- centage of appointments included in the first three classes is 65'7, in the Straits only 43.2 per cent. of the total are so placed."
There is also of course the further point, on which I will not now enlarge, as to how many appointments in either service, when two services are compared, may be filled at discretion from outside the service.
20. My view on the main question is as follows. For the reasons which I have given I am not satisfied as to the "unreasonable inequality between salaries in Ceylon and the other Eastern Colonies," and I am still less satisfied that the large all-round increase suggested by the committee is either reasonable or equitable. It is not equit- able, for it is obvious that the case of the junior officers is harder than that of holders of the higher appointments: the committee themselves note (paragraph 41) that in the case of the 5th class the 20 per cent. increase is not as favourable as my proposals, and you in your despatch urge that higher scales of salary than the 20 per cent. would produce should be given to the 4th and 5th classes,
It is not again to my mind reasonable. It seems to me not to have been fully thought out, to be based on no sound principle, and to embody little or no element of finality. I am sorry to criticise a scheme over which much trouble has been taken, and to which you have given your support. It would have been a pleasure to me simply to accept the proposals without criticism, but you will probably, on reading this despatch, even if you do not agree with it, appreciate the considerations which have prevented me from agreeing to what has been proposed.
21. At the same time I wish to deal with this question in no niggardly spirit, and I am inclined to think that the most satisfactory solution will be on the lines which. have been followed in the case of the Malay Peninsula and of Hong Kong, viz., that a sterling scheme of salaries (which is practically the same as a scale of salaries at 18. 4d. the rupee) should be drawn up for the cadet service and for such grades of appointments outside the cadet service as are usually filled by Europeans; that the salaries should be fixed upon the basis that all fictitious rates for any purpose whatever, leave, pension, or widows' pensions, are abolished, and with due reference to the value of allowances, if any allowances are to be retained or created.
This sterling scale should be entirely irrespective of present holders of appointments, their claims and their interests, but they should be given the option of joining it once for all, if they wish. For the present holders of appointments, inasmuch as the proposals which I have already made are thought not to be sufficiently liberal, I am of opinion- although the course is open to the double objection of perpetuating fictitious rates of exchange and of increasing non-effective charges-that the further betterment should take the form of adopting the proposals contained in my previous despatch, but not coupling them with any withdrawal for any purpose whatever of the privilege rates of exchange which are now enjoyed. I am not prepared to give the further increase to the 4th and 5th classes of the cadet service which you suggest in your despatch, though I should look favourably on a more liberal sterling scale of salaries, not complicated by any fictitious rates of exchange; nor am I prepared to concede station allowances except, it may be, as a pendant to a new sterling scale.
The result, as far as I can estimate, will be that in those grades of the Govern- ment service which are usually held by Europeans, the holders of the higher appoint- ments will be to the full as well off as their colleagues in the Malay Peninsula and Hong Kong; while the junior officers, if dissatisfied with what has been done to improve their position on their present footing must be prepared to accept the sterling scale.
22. That scale will require most careful consideration, and I must leave it to you to decide whether you are prepared to draw it up with the assistance of the Colonial Secretary's Department or whether you would prefer to entrust the task to a small committee on which there should be an unofficial element. Or again, you are at liberty, if you wish, to print the correspondence as it stands and lay it before the Legislative
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Council. I do not suggest, though I do not fetter your discretion in the matter, that the committee whose report you have enclosed and I have criticised, should be asked to comment on this despatch, as I do not wish to prolong the controversy which the subject invites. The memorial from the senior officers of the Public Works Department which was enclosed in your despatch, No. 421, of the 18th October, and the letter from the Surveyor-General on behalf of the serior officers of his departinent which was enclosed in your despatch, No. 465, of the 15th November, should be considered in connection with the new sterling scale; and, in any case, I wish whatever increases may be given to date from the 1st of January, 1905.
I have the honour to be,
Governor Sir H. A. Blake, G.C.M.G.,
&c.,
&c.,
&c.
Sir,
Your most obedient humble Servant,
ALFRED LYTTELTON.
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