528
།།།།།
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference-
C.O.882/19
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BF REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-' COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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in place of the present Hydraulic Branch of the Federated Malay States Public Works Deparment, and to your subsequent Straits Settlements telegram No. 1 of the 1st January,* in the course of which you reported that, subject to my approval, you had gazetted Mr. F. G. Finch to be Director of Drainage and Irrigation, Straits Settlements and Adviser on Drainage and Irrigation to the Malay States as from the 1st of January.
2. In view of the importance of drainage and irrigation in Malaya, I consider that there would have been justification for placing them under a special Sub- Department of the Public Works Department in charge of an Assistant Director. I am not altogether convinced that the creation of a new and entirely separate Depart- ment, which was advocated by the Rice Cultivation Commission on which the Public Works Department was not represented, will meet in the most efficient manner the needs of these services. It seems possible that it may result in a lack of co-ordination when engineering works in the same district are undertaken by the two Departments and in unnecessary duplication of stores and plant.
3. I also observe that, although the separate Department of Drainage and Irrigation is based upon the recommendation of the Rice Cultivation Committee, the Department, as actually constituted by you, differs from what the Committee recom- mended in an important particular, namely, that it is to act merely in an advisory capacity in the Federated Malay States.
4. I should have preferred to have been consulted upon the constitution of this new Department before the decision was actually taken. I should then have had an opportunity of weighing the arguments for and against the creation of a separate Department. As it is, I am left with no alternative but to approve your proposals in so far as they relate to the creation of a separate department; but I can take no decision on the question whether the new Department shall have executive, or merely advisory, powers in the Federated Malay States until full consideration has been given to your general proposals for devolution in Malaya.
5. In the meantime I approve the appointment of Mr. F. G. Finch to take charge of the new Department of Drainage and Irrigation from the date indicated, and at the salary proposed (the definite title of his post to be decided upon at a later date).
6. I further approve of the appointments of Mr. A. G. Robinson to the second senior post in the new Department (the definite title of which is also to be decided at a later date), and Messrs. W. J. D. Pinkerton and B. O. Bush to be Senior Drainage and Irrigation Engineers, with effect from the same date and at the salaries specified in paragraph 8 of your despatch under reference.
C. 82483/31 [No. 5].
SIR,
No. 52.
I have, &c.,
P. CUNLIFFE-LISTER.
FEDERATED MALAY STATES.
STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.
THE HIGH COMMISSIONER to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 11th April, 1932.)
(Confidential)
I HAVE the honour to of the 12th February last, Department.
King's House, Kuala Lumpur, 31st March, 1932. address you with reference to your Confidential despatch regarding the newly created Drainage and Irrigation
2. I note that in your view the arguments of the Rice Cultivation Committee for the creation of an entirely separate department, to take the place of the former Hydraulic Branch of the Public Works Department, were not sufficiently convincing. I had thought that the case put forward in paragraphs 63 to 75, Volume I, of the Committee's Report, page 163 of Volume III, and in the acting Chief Secretary's memorandum which accompanied my despatch of the 26th November last, clusive. The Committee, however, deliberately refrained from giving expression to the general disappointment at, and discontent with, the lack of effective contribution
*C.82483/31 [No. 2]: not
No. 51.
printed.
Į
No. 50.
was con-
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on the part of the late Hydraulic Branch of the Public Works Department to the rice-growing industry in this country. The reasons for the Committee's partial silence in this matter were that they considered the system and not the engineers to be at fault, and that they thought it impolitic to proclaim too loudly the fact that no serious attempt had been made to increase the country's food supply by appreciably extending ita rice fields since the completion of the Krian Irrigation Scheme in 1906. To have put a Public Works Department officer on this Committee (the omission is commented upon in your second paragraph) would have been tantamount to placing the accused person on the judicial bench.
The Committee was purposely given an impartial constitution, and their finding that, if drainage and irrigation are to receive the attention (financially and otherwise) that the needs of the country dictate, they must be made the care and responsibility of a distinct and separate authority, has met with general acceptance throughout Malaya.
3. The new Department is already working in the fullest liaison with its the Public Works Department, and the possibility of a lack of co-ordination in engineer- parent, ing works or of a duplication of stores and plant will not be allowed to arise. The Hydraulic Branch already had its own separate stores at Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh, and these have been taken oven by the new Department. At Krian and Bagan Datoh the two Departments are using a common store, partitioned into two compartments. Loans of equipment and apparatus from the one department to the other will be arranged whenever necessary; interdepartmental accommodation of this kind is nothing new in Malaya.
4. In the third paragraph of your despatch it is stated that the new Department, as actually constituted by me, differs from what the Rice Cultivation Committee recom- mended in an important particular, namely, that it is to act merely in an advisory capacity in the Federated Malay States. I regret that there has been a serious mis- apprehension here. The department in each State is definitely not advisory but executive; it is the relation of the Head of the Department to the State Governments that will be advisory in essence, though he may be invited by a State Government (and has already been so invited) to assume executive functions in regard to some particular work.
5. I sent to you last week a Confidential despatch, dated 23rd March,* in which I reviewed the advisory system of departmental leadership with particular reference to the Public Works and Medical Departments and in its general relation to the political requirements of Malaya. I do not intend to trouble you with a needless duplication of what I then wrote, but I would invite attention to the remark of Mr. A. S. Haynes (now British Adviser, Kelantan) recorded on page 163, Volume II, of the Rice Cultiva- tion Committee's report :-
"The Head of the Department would be advisory and would have State heads for executive work, and this idea would fit in with the views of the Unfederated Malay States.'
In his supplementary memorandum to the Report, Volume I, page 53, Mr. Haynes again insisted on this view :-
"The present post of Chief Hydraulic Engineer in the Public Works Depart- ment would be abolished, and the new Director of Drainage and Irrigation would be in the Malay States an inspecting and advisory officer and not an executive head. That this was the status originally intended for the heads of Federal Departments is clear from the first Annual Report of the Resident-General of the Federated Malay States for 1896. Sir Frank Swettenham in paragraph 12 of that Report records as the policy of the Government that the Federal Officers use their authority as it is intended it should be used, that is rather as inspectors and advisers to the local officers than the heads of departments.
"Under such a system a large staff at headquarters is unnecessary.'
"
6. The rest of the Committee accepted Mr. Haynes' view, as will be seen from the wording of paragraph 66 of the Report :-
---
"We further consider that, if this proposal is adopted, the projected Drainage and Irrigation Department should be organized on a State and Settlement basis with a small headquarters staff consisting of the Director of Drainage and Irrigation with such assistants as might be required; the executive portion of the
* C. 92300/11/32 [No. 34] : not printed.