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It will be apparent from the above statement that the number of fully trained and experienced Superior Staff Officers immediately available will actually be only seven, without any allowance for leave or casualties.
14. Sir Graeme Thomson acquiesced, so far as the 1933-34 Estimates were concerned, but not without considerable reluctance and misgiving, in the position thus created, because he considered himself committed by the terms of his previous stipula- tion that the cadre of officers abore the rank of Forester should not be reduced to less than eleven, but on the 12th of August last he again informed the Minister, as he had done nearly a year before (vide paragraph 6 above), that he could not possibly commit himself on the general question of forest policy in advance of a discussion and decision in the State Council, and added that, if the State Council came to a decision on forest policy which involved for any long or indefinite period the practical abandon- ment of all measures for the development of Ceylon's timber resources, it would be quite impossible for him, without prior reference to the Secretary of State, to ratify such decision. He also pointed out to the Minister that you might be expected to regard the development of these resources as a matter of the greatest importance.
15. In present circumstances I should not attach great importance to the absence of provision in the Estimates for the filling of actual vacancies in the higher staff, even though one of the vacancies to be left temporarily unfilled is that of the Head of the Department, for I recognize that there are advantages in postponing the selection of an officer to be Head of the Department and the filling of the other vacancies until a well-conceived programme of work for the superior staff to carry out has been decided on. Nor do I wish to leave in any doubt the indisputable fact that the budget provision in which Sir Graeme Thomson ultimately acquiesced involved the compulsory retire- ment of two members of the grade of Assistant Conservator. It is essential, however, to consider the compulsory retirement of these two officers in the light of the request of the Minister for the services of an expert adviser and with special reference to one of the reasons adduced by the Minister for his insistence on these retirements.
16. I am in entire agreement with the Minister's request for the services of an expert adviser which he first made in August of this year and repeated just before Sir Graeme Thomson's departure from Ceylon in September (vide the two letters of which copies form annexures to this despatch). It is my opinion that continuance of the present doubt and uncertainty on the subject of forest policy, coupled with the dubious expedient of handing over the protection of numerous reserves and other Crown forests to the Revenue Officers, who are already overburdened with work and will not have at their disposal machinery adequate, to the effective discharge of this fresh responsibility, is likely to lead to the illicit exploitation of the forests and thus to the completion of their devastation and the irretrievable loss to the Island of a potential source of economic strength. I fear that it has to be recognized that no large volume of either internal or external trade in Ceylon timber can be fostered without con- siderable expenditure which will not be immediately remunerative, and that while the present depression continues this. expenditure will have to be kept within narrow limits, but I am convinced that even with the restrictions now imposed by financial becessity much can be done under expert guidance to pave the way for the preservation and development of a valuable national asset.
17. It is obvious, however, that no expert, however competent, can lay down the lines of policy or draw up a programme of work without the assistance of a reasonably sufficient and efficient Forest Department, and I must confess that I enter- tain grave fears that the retrenchments of superior staff that have already taken place and are contemplated, more particularly the retrenchment of two of the ten fully- trained Assistant Conservators, notwithstanding the fact that these retirements received a measure of acquiescence by Sir Graeme Thomson, will leave the Department too weak to give the expert the assistance which he will need.
18. When Sir Graeme Thomson acquiesced in the compulsory retirement of two officers of the grade of Assistant Conservator he did so only after pointing out in the strongest terms the unwisdom of dispensing with the services of two such officers at a time when a request was being made for the services of an expert to advise on forest policy in Ceylon. He pointed out to the Minister that it would be a much more prudent course to await the visit of an expert before proceeding to reduce the existing fly-trained staff of Assistant Conservators from 10 to 8 and substituting for two fully-trained officers two newly-recruited Extra Assistant Conservators in order to maintain the minimum cadre of 11 to which the Minister had agreed.
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19. The Minister, however, maintained the attitude which he had already taken up, that an improved staff was necessary (vide paragraph 7 above), and stated that the stand-still" forest policy upon which his Executive Committee had decided was definitely a decision based upon present circumstances and with the hope of recruiting if not two well-qualified and experienced officers from abroad to serve respectively as Head of the Department and as Chief Exploitation Officer at least one as soon in the future as funds permit and the men are available.”
20. In the course of a recent oral discussion between the Minister and myself he developed this statement of his views and inade it quite plain that it was his contention that the services of an expert are necessary, in the first place, to advise on the pre- liminary measures for the collection and preparation of the information in regard to the forests of Ceylon which will be required as the foundation of the expert's main task of formulating a policy and a programme, and he appeared to contemplate the possibility that a second visit by the expert would be necessary for this main task. He added that unless at least two of the more senior Assistant Conservators are compul- sorily retired, in order to make way for better-trained officers, he would prefer to drop his proposal to obtain the services of an expert and to leave forest problems in the confused state in which they now are.
21.
I was unable to induce the Minister to modify this attitude of extreme pessimism even to the extent of awaiting the visit of an expert in order that the Govern- ment might have the benefit of his opinion on the technical competence of the remaining members of the superior staff to carry out whatever programme of work the expert might advise. I pointed out to the Minister that at present there was no authoritative opinion to support his unfavourable view of the present staff and that, while I admitted the need of outside technical advice for purposes of defining the future activities of the Department, there was at present no real reason to doubt the capacity of individua! members of the present staff to discharge the technical duties for which they had been trained. These considerations appeared to make no impression op the Minister whatever.
22. The Minister has on more than one occasion laid emphasis on what is the perfectly correct statement of fact, that up to the present almost the whole weight of the retrenchment which he and his Executive Committee have carried out in the Forest Department has fallen on the subordinate staff of that Department, and has stated quite frankly that the retrenchment of two European members of the superior staff was, in his opinion, a necessity in order to remove the impression that would otherwise be created in the public mind that Ceylonese subordinates had been readily sacrificed to financial exigencies while Europeans had escaped. It is natural that the Minister should attach importance to this consideration, but I cannot resist the con- clusion that he has given it more weight than it merits and has permitted it to obscure from his mind more important considerations.
23. Mr. Vincent, a forestry expert, who visited Ceylon in 1882, then reported as follows:-
"It is much to be regretted that we still have so little definite information regarding the area and the growth of our forests
The country must
be examined block by block. The basis for a Working Plan is the annual yield of the forests, of which we yet know nothing."
Mr. A. B. Lushington, the present Acting-Conservator of Forests, reports that these observations are as true to-day as they were fifty years ago when they were made. It is clear, then, that before any real progress is possible it is necessary to ascertain (a) the extent of the forests by re-selection, demarcation, and survey, and (b) their contents, by preliminary exploration, stock mapping and enumeration. It is my considered view that the superior staff of eleven indicated in paragraph 13 will be insufficient to make even a beginning with this essential preliminary work, in addition to carrying out even the modified programme of sowing and planting, cutting and converting timber and extraction of firewood contemplated by the Estimates, together with such protective work as the Forest staff must continue to do itself, and it is also my view that the retrenchment of two of the present staff of trained Assistant Conservators would be an act of the greatest unwisdom. The difficulties and cost of planning the work of the Department on sound and profitable lines will obviously be greatly increased if it is found as a result of the expert's visit that trained Assistant Conservators who have been compulsorily retired on pension, and probably cannot be recalled to service, have to be replaced by new officers.