PUBLIC
PECORD OFFICE
Reference —
41117 C.O.882/12
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
Br
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
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following:-Public works, medicine and health, drainage and irrigation, prisons, audit. The impulse was in each of these cases primarily retrenchment and economy, except in the case of Department of Drainage and Irrigation, which has been brought into being pursuant to a recommendation made in the report of the Rice Committee with the object of assisting the extension of rice cultivation in the Malay Peninsula; and even in the case of this department no increase in last year's engineering establishments is involved, but only a mitigation of the severity of retrenchment. In view of the decentralization policy the heads of these newly formed joint departments have only been given advisory duties in the Federated Malay States such as the heads of the previously existing joint departments have in the Unfederated Malay States. The object is thereby to give them a pan-Malayan outlook and to assist the gradual development of a true pan-Malayan federation. As stated in paragraph 2 of my Confidential despatch, dated the 18th February, 1932, Lord Passfield authorized me on my return from leave to begin at ouce with the first steps towards the establishment, when desirable, of Malayan depart- ments. (See notes of the Conference at the Colonial Office, dated 15th May, 1931.*) My proposals in this respect, apart from those concerning the Audit Department already approved in your telegram No. 217 of the 24th November, 1931, and your subsequent despatch Confidential (2) of the 4th December, 1931,† are set out in the following documents :-
(a) as regards the Medical Department in my Confidential despatches, dated 29th October, 31st October,§ and 18th November, 1931,|| and 2nd January, 1932.¶
*
(b) as regards the Public Works Department in my despatch Confidential (2)
of the 29th October, 1931.**
(c) as regards the Prison Department in my despatch No. 555 of 27th October,
1931,†† and
(d) as regards the Drainage and Irrigation Department in my Confidential des-
patch of the 26th November, 1931.‡‡
Please see also my Confidential despatches of the 2nd§§ and 29th January, 1932.||||| My proposals for reorganization of the Audit Department which you have already approved, were made as a preparatory step towards decentralization, because I fully realize the need for maintaining independent and effective financial control under the new policy. I shall be happy to supply any further information you may require in respect of my other departmental proposals; but I have endeavoured to make them as clear as possible in the despatches above cited. They are all embodied in the 1932 Estimates both of the Colony and of the Federated Malay States, and they have been approved unanimously by the Federal and Legislative Councils. They are self-contained and will not be affected by the report of the Committee on financial decentralization, which has just been received by me, and of which I shall send you copies as soon as they can be printed. I and my principal advisers are convinced that these departmental rearrangements are financially, politically, and administratively sound and that no adverse repercussions will result from them. They have worked very satisfactorily in each department since the 1st January, 1932. Accordingly I have to-day telegraphed to you in this sense and asked for your approval.
in
5. In the case of the Medical Department, Dr. C. J. Wilson remains gazetted as
you Principal Medical Officer, Federated Malay States. He has also, as I informed my confidential despatch of the 2nd January, 1932, been gazetted, subject to your approval as "Director of Medical and Health Services, Straits Settlements, and Adviser, Medical and Health Services, Malay States," with effect from the 1st January, 1932. The federal enactments in several clauses make mention of the post of Principal Medical Officer, Federated Malay States, and assign duties to it. Legislation has been drafted devolving those duties on other authorities and in my despatch No. 107 of the 29th February, 1932.¶¶ I have transmitted these Bills for your approval prior to their introduction into Federal Council. When the necessary legisla- tion has been passed, it will be possible to cancel the notice gazetting Dr. Wilson as Principal Medical Officer, Federated Malay States, and he will then have advisory duties only in the Federated Malay States as well as in the Unfederated Malay States.
6. I shall as a matter of routine, unless you otherwise direct, refer to you in draft all legislation connected with decentralization, in order that I may be sure that it meets with your approval before it is introduced into Federal Council.
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7. I shall, of course, in view of your instructions take no further steps towards decentralization without first obtaining your concurrence, and I shall hold out no hopes to the Malay Rulers. But must point out that hopes have already been held out to them both by your predecessors and mine for many years past and that hope deferred makes the heart sick.
S.. I shall post this despatch by air mail and send a duplicate by ocean mail.
I have, &c.,
C. 92300/32 [No. 34].
No. 26.
C. CLEMENTI.
High Commissioner.
FEDERATED MALAY STATES.
STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.
THE HIGH COMMISSIONER to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Confidential.)
(Received 4th April, 1932.)
[Answered by No. 28.]
The Lodge, Fraser's Hill, 23rd March, 1932.
SIR,
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your telegram of the 9th March, 1932,* in which you state that my despatches on the reorganization of certain departments in connexion with the policy of decentralization in the Federated Malay States set out the appointments proposed by me, and the functions which the various officers would discharge, but do not place you in a the merits or otherwise of the proposals from an administrative point of view. Your position to reach conclusions on telegram proceeded in the following words :--
"You have furnished me with no reasoned reports showing the extent to which the administrative efficiency of departments in the Federated Malay States will be affected by the charges proposed. decision. As regards the Medical Department the Colonial Advisory Medical Without such reports I can reach no Committee, on information at present before them, have expressed an adverse view of the proposals on administrative grounds."
2. I must at the outset of my reply confess to a sense of keen disappointment that the series of despatches, with their enclosures, that I enumerated in my Confiden- tial despatch of the 24th December, 1931,† has not enabled a reasoned judgment to be arrived at. On re-reading my Confidential despatches of the 29th Octobert and 18th November last, § I feel that the financial and administrative effect of my recom- mendations in regard to the Public Works and Medical Departments were fully, if succinctly, set forth. I am aware, however, that what may be perfectly clear at close range can appear hazy from a distance, and that with the Malayan administrative machine in operation daily before me, I may have taken as self-evident points which, in a report of them, stand in need of explanation or elaboration. The proposed new organization of the two departments has now been in operation provisionally for over two months, and I therefore feel that the enclosed two memoranda by Mr. G. Sturrock, Director of Public Works, and Dr. C. J. Wilson, Director of Medical and Health Services, written in the light of practice and experience already gained, will adequately fill any lacune that may inadvertently have occurred in my previous despatches. It is possible also that my recent despatches on the proposed creation of a Malayan Establishment Office at Singapore (Confidential of the 14th March, 1932), and on financial devolution (Confidential (2) of the 18th March, 1932), may have enabled you to appreciate more exactly the lines along which the development of my plans for decentralization would proceed.
3. Dr. Wilson and Mr. Sturrock are both leaving on furlough for England on 1st April, and, if there is anything that is still left unexplained or insufficiently detailed, I hope that an opportunity may be taken of interviewing them at the Colonial Office.
* No. 4.
+ C. 82351/31 [No. 34]: not printed.
|| No. 70.
1 C. 80405/9/31 [No. 4]: not printed.
§§ No. 13.
↑ No. 69.
No. 18.
§ No. 30 in Miscellaneous No. 420.
** No. 57. tt No. 55. 11 No. 50.
11 No. 24.
* No. 22.
† No. 12, Nos. 57 and 69.
§ No. 70.
↑ No. 35.
|| C. 92300/32 [(No. 42]: not printed.
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