406
PECORD OFFICE
Reference
C.O.882/12
ALLY. WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE | BÈ....REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC.
„COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
34
conditions of service. I do not think it can have been any part of your intention to surrender the power vested in the Governor by Article 22 to declare the necessary measure in such a case to be one of paramount importance or essential to give effect to the provisions of the Order in Council, but subject to these reservations the policy of Ceylonization of the Public Services which is the essence of this clause is one with which I am in accord, and to which I think you are prepared, to give your entire approval.
7. I have already dealt at some length in my despatch No. 138 of the 28th February with the subject of the second clause of the first resolution which deals with the review of salaries on promotion, and I do not propose to say more here than to allude to the difficulty which is likely to arise in determining whether in any given case the occasion is a proper one for a review of the salary attaching to the post in question. I appreciate the difficulty of laying down a hard-and-fast line of demarcation, and it will no doubt be found that when the principles enunciated in paragraph 7 of your despatch of 14th November come to be applied in practice to individual cases as they arise, the actual points of conflict will be fewer than might at first be supposed, but subject to this possibility of conflict, and to what I have said in my despatch already referred to, I think the principle of consultation contained in this clause may be conceded. I assume, notwithstanding that the words are capable of a wider extension of meaning, that the proposal relates only to such cases as at present come before Executive Committees on a reference from the Public Services Commission; any other interpretation would involve such congestion of business both in the Executive Com- mittees and the Board of Ministers as to be entirely impracticable.
8. The third clause of the first resolution contains two principles, the first of which relating to the right of commutation of pension of future entrants has already been conceded. The second, which seeks to limit the total pension which an officer may draw from all sources to Rs. 16,000 per annum seems to me quite impossible of acceptance. It would mean in effect that the service in Ceylon of an officer trans- ferred from elsewhere to one of the higher posts in Ceylon or of an officer transferred from Ceylon to a high post elsewhere might be deprived in whole or in part of pension value; and, so long as it remains necessary to fill one or more of the posts of Officer of State or Judge of the Supreme Court by the transfer of an officer from His Majesty's service elsewhere, it would, unless and until such a limit were universally adopted, merely operate to restrict the field for selection, to the natural detriment of Ceylon. Even if applied to the case of an officer whose whole service had been in Ceylon, the financial effect would be so small in the aggregate that it is to my mind clearly undesirable that a dístinguished public servant should be deprived of the full reward of his services on the ordinary scale.
9. In regard to the fourth clause relating to leave concessions I have very little to say, except that it will not apply to the case of an officer recruited from abroad, whose terms of service will fall to be adjusted separately. The subject of the leave concessions to be enjoyed by officers in Ceylon will no doubt engage the attention of the Select Committee appointed in terms of the second resolution, and I will confine myself to remarking that, having regard to the large number of public holidays obtaining in Ceylon for reasons into which I need not enter here, there is a general feeling in which I share that the existing facilities for leave to be taken in Ceylon err somewhat on the side of liberality.
10. In regard to the last clause of the first resolution I have also very little to say, except that I defended the maintenance of the existing concession principally upon the ground that officers of non-Civil List status, having failed to secure the amelioration of their position which was actually promised to them by the late Legis- lative Council, and having therefore felt with added force the sacrifices entailed by the levy on salaries, should not suffer further by the withdrawal of this concession. If leave concessions are curtailed in terms of the preceding clause, one of the principal objections to this concession, that it encourages the taking of unnecessary leave, should be largely nullified. There is also the fact that the concession entails no additional expense to Government, since whatever the Railway receives by way of revenue on this traffic is returned to Government in the shape of interest on the capital embarked in the Railway; nevertheless I am not prepared to oppose curtailment of the concession in so far as it applies to future entrants.
11. The second resolution, as I have already indicated in paragraph 3 above, was widened in it's terms by the State Council so as to include the whole scope of
35
the Reports of the Commission. I have said in my despatch of the 28th February, forwarding the letter from the Board of Ministers in which they express their dis- appointment that you should have seen fit to interpose a statement of your views for the guidance of those who are partners in responsibility with you, that in seeking your advice I was not prompted by any desire to stop or stifle discussion of the recommen- dations of the Commission. I feel sure that the better sense of Members of the State Council will prevail to ensure that, with the help of the guidance afforded by your despatch of 14th November, the labours of the Select Committee will not be unproductive of valuable results. Subject to these considerations the inclusion in its terms of reference of the salaries and conditions of existing members of the public service need not, I think, afford ground for apprehension.
12. The second part of this resolution is one which I think can be accepted as it stunds; the reference to modifications relates to such matters as the third, fourth, and fifth parts of the first resolution. Your have already indicated in paragraph 6 of your despatch of 14th November that you are prepared to give the new scales a trial; on closer examination certain difficulties were found to exist, as, for instance, the purely tentative suggestion in regard to a contributory pension scheme, in a proposal to accept en bloc the recommendations of the Commission in regard to future Ceylonese entrants. The present proposal will permit of the engagement of new recruits with the minimum of dislocation.
I have, &c..
GRAEME THOMSON,
14276/33 [No. 6].
SIR,
(No. 414.)
No. 21.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR.
Governor
Downing Street, 24th August, 1933. I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 237 of the
8th April,* forwarding the text of certain resolutions adopted by the State Council on the 1st March, 1933.
2.
The first of these resolutions deals with the fixing of the salaries and conditions of service of officers newly appointed to the Public Services of Ceylon. and of existing officers on promotion in the Services. In this connexion there are certain general principles in regard to which I think it desirable that my views should be clearly before you.
3. The resolution purports to be based on certain general observations contained in my despatch No. 620 of the 14th November, 1932,† dealing with the Interim Report of the Salaries and Cadres Commission. The resolution, however, goes considerably further than the terms of that despatch could warrant, and in the course of the dis- cussion of the resolution there appears to have been much misapprehension as to the true constitutional position.
4. Under Article 86 of the Ceylon (State Council) Order in Council, the appoint- ment, promotion, transfer, dismissal, and disciplinary control of public officers is vested in the Governor, while under Article 89 there is constituted a Public Services Com- mission to advise the Governor in the exercise of the powers conferred upon him by Article 86. Further, under Article 87 certain responsibilities for the preservation of the conditions of service of public officers are thrown upon the Governor and the Secretary of State. It follows from these provisions that there is vested in the Governor the duty of ensuring and maintaining the efficiency of the Public Service; and for this purpose the Governor must be the judge on all questions as to the necessary numbers of staff, their emoluments and their conditions of service. That is a fundamental duty of the Governor and there can be no derogation from his responsibility. If, therefore, the Governor considers that the staff of any department is insufficient or inadequately qualified for its essential duties, it will be incumbent upon him, in the last resort, to obtain the necessary provision by the use of his powers under Article 22 of the Order in Council.
* No. 20.
† No. 18.-