47
429
4. It will be seen that under this scheme the Executive Committee will be formed by the addition of a certain number of the Elected Members of the Legislative Council to the members of the existing Executive Council. If such a scheme is brought into operation it might be considered desirable in the future to vary to some extent the composition of the Executive Council. It will, no doubt, be desirable that in addition to the Governor, the Colonial Secretary, the Attorney General and the Treasurer should be ex-officio members of the Executive Committee in view of their membership of the Executive Council. Such questions could, however, be discussed in more detail when the scheme for the formation of an Executive Committee has reached a more advanced stage.
5. The question of the relations between the Executive Committee, the Legislative Council and the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council will require careful consideration, If the duty of preparing annual and supplementary Estimates of expenditure is to be thrown on the Executive Committee, it would seem to be an unnecessary complication for all such questions to be discussed as a matter of course in the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council in its present form. Further, with the enlargement of the Legislative Council, a Finance Committee containing all the unofficial members would seem to be an unwieldy body for the transaction of detailed financial business. On these and similar questions, however, it will be necessary to have regard to some extent to the opinions of the unofficial members of the Council.
I have, &c.,
DEVONSHIRE.
40633
No. 38.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR.
(Confidential.)
[Answered by No. 50.]
SIR,
Downing Street, 25th September, 1923. In the scheme for an Executive Committee in Ceylon, of which I enclosed an outline in my Confidential despatch of even date,* I have adopted the method of selection and appointment of Elected Members which is embodied in the Barbados Act constituting the Executive Committee of that Colony, and have provided that they shall be appointed by the Governor during pleasure.
2. I do not attach any special importance to the proportion of communally- elected and territorially-elected Members on the Committee, or to their being appointed for the session only, and I should be prepared to consider alternative suggestions if necessary. But I think it desirable that you should know that I do attach great importance to the selection and appointment of the Elected Members by the Governor, and should not be prepared to agree to their selection by the Legislature or to any other method of selection which would deprive the King's representative of his prerogative of selecting his councillors.
I have, &c.,
DEVONSHIRE.
48123
No. 39.
Enclosure in No. 37.
DRAFT SCHEME FOR THE FORMATION OF AN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE IN CEYLON.
1. On the opening of each Session of the Legislative Council, the Governor may appoint during pleasure not more than two Communally Elected Members of the Legislative Council and not more than, four Territorially Elected Members of the Legislative Council to be associated, and to form, together with the Governor in Executive Council, a Committee for the transaction of public financial business, for the consideration of ways and means and for advising with the Governor on any measures which he may deem it expedient to bring before the Legislative Council.
2. The Committee so formed shall be called the Executive Committee. The Governor or in his absence the senior member of the Executive Council present shall preside at its sittings. Notwithstanding the prorogation or dissolution of the Legislative Council or the expiry of the Session, the members thereof who are members of the Committee shall continue to act in such capacity until the commence- ment of the ensuing Session. In the event of a member of the Legislative Council vacating his seat in the Committee in any manner, the Governor may make a fresh appointment.
3. The duties of the Executive Committee shall include (a) the preparation of the annual Estimates; (b) the discussion of proposals for new legislation; (4) the preparation of rules and regulations under any Ordinance which empowers the Governor in Executive Committee to make such rules or regulations; (d) the discussion of any questions which the Governor may in his discretion refer to the Executive Committee.
4. The Governor may act in opposition to the advice given him by members of the Executive Committee, but in every such case it shall be competent to any member of the Committee to require that there be recorded on the Minutes the grounds of any advice or opinion he may give upon the question.
5. Minutes of the proceedings of the Committee and of the decisions arrived
at shall be kept, but no verbatim records of such proceedings shall be kept.
6. The meetings of the Committee shall be private and shall not be open to representatives of the Press, but the proceedings of the Committee shall not be regarded as secret unless in any case the Governor shall so decide prior to the discussion of any particular question.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Confidential.)
MY LORD DUKE,
(Received 1st October, 1923.)
[Answered by No. 44.]
The Queen's Cottage,
Nuwara Eliya, 10th September, 1923.
IN paragraph 7 of my despatch No. 594 of the 31st August, 1923,† with which I forwarded the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for 1923-24, I mentioned certain resolutions which were passed by a majority of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council to which the budget was referred. The resolutions had for their
object the reduction of the salaries of all public officers whose emoluments amount to or exceed £300 per annum, the revision of the regulations governing rent allowance, and the abolition of the concession of free passages for public officers proceeding on leave, and their wives and families.
I
2. I now have the honour to address Your Grace further on the subject. will, in the first place, set out in detail the circumstances in which these resolutions were moved, the arguments which were brought forward in support of them, and the action which was taken by Government in the matter.
8. As Your Grace is aware, the salaries and other conditions of service of the public officers in this Colony have been very recently settled on the lines recom- mended by the Salaries Commission of 1921, after a most comprehensive investiga- tion. In connexion with the budget for 1922-23 the Legislative Council passed the vote which was inserted in the Estimates as "Increase required for payment of Salaries, etc., as per new Scheme," and after final revision by the Committee, whose report was published as S.P. II/1923, the new salaries were brought into operation with Your Grace's approval as from the 1st October, 1922. In this connexion I would invite reference to my Confidential despatch of the 3rd October, 1922,‡ and to the final despatches on the subject, published as S.P. XIII/1923 [1922]
4. In the Budget for 1923-24 provision was made under the appropriate Heads of the Estimates for the payment of salaries and rent allowances in accordance with the sanctioned scheme, in substitution for the two votes for "Temporary Increases" and "Increase required for payment of Salaries, etc., as per new scheme," which appear in the Estimates for 1922-23 under Head 46, Miscellaneous services. Pro- vision was also included under Head 46 for Passages of Officers, etc. In the course
# No. 46089/28: not reprinted. No. 28 in Eastern No. 188.
* No. 87.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :----
TILL CO. 882/10
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