PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE | COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
20 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
SIR,
(Draft.)
116
Enclosure in No, 57.
The SECRETARY OF STATE to the GOVERNOR.
[Paragraphs 1-8 as in No. 59.]
9. I shall no doubt hear further from you as to the details of your proposal and as to the additional increase of establishment which you foreshadow for next year. In the meantime I approve, as a fentative measure, of your proceeding as you propose in the 4th paragraph of your despatch on the condition that no increase of expendi- ture on personal emoluments will be incurred either in the present year or for a staff not exceeding the present number in future, and also on the understanding that none of the men selected by you will be permanent and pensionable.
10. I do not consider it necessary to refer in detail to Mr. Townsend's remarks as to the selection of computers and draughtsmen. His views will be carefully borne in mind, but I am not aware that serious objection has been raised as to the capacity of the draughtsmen sent out, while, as regards the computers, the staff is now complete, and the necessity for further appointments may not arise.
412
SIR,
No. 58.
I have, &c.,
EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE.
TREASURY to COLONIAL OFFICE.
(Received January 4, 1912.)
[Answered by No. 60.]
Treasury Chambers, 3rd January, 1912. I HAVE laid before the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury Sir G Fiddes's letter of the 22nd ultimo (40142/1911),* and the accompanying copy of s despatch which has been received from the Governor of the East Africa Protectorate on the subject of the selection of surveyors for service in that Protectorate, together with a draft of the reply which Mr. Secretary Harcourt proposes to send to the Governor.
In reply, I am to state that my Lords see very serious objection to giving Sir P. Girouard the permission for which he asks to offer to surveyors from the self-govern- The ing Dominions such terms as may be necessary to attract experienced men. acknowledged intention of this proposal is to increase, where necessary, the present rates of personal remuneration, and my Lords consider that whatever the immediate result of such a system might be it cannot fail ultimately, by introducing a class of more highly paid officials to work side by side with the existing staff, to raise the standard of personal emoluments throughout the Survey Department, and thus to throw an additional burden of recurrent expenditure upon the Protectorate.
My Lords are not acquainted with the measures adopted for recruiting candi- dates for the Survey Department in East Africa, but they gather from the terms of the draft reply that the present system can hardly be said yet to have had a fair trial, and they are not without hopes that on further experience it may prove practicable to maintain existing arrangements.
Even if, however, an increase of expenditure is shown to be inevitable, my Lords would still be opposed, on grounds of financial control, to a scheme of selection under which the rates of salary payable to successful candidates were not definitely fixed and published beforehand according to the ascertained requirements of the posts to be filled, but were varied at the discretion of the Governor to meet the demands of particular applicants,
The Secretary of State will, no doubt, recognise how far removed such a system would be from the practice which obtains in fully established Departments in this
• No. 57.
117
1
country, as well as from the trend of modern Parliamentary opinion, and my Lords trust that upon further consideration he will not press his support of the Governor's proposals in this respect.
In conclusion, I am to request that their Lordships may be furnished in due course with the information for which the Secretary of State proposes to ask respect- ing the allowances to surveyors in East Africa.
412
(No. 26.)
No. 59.
I am, &c.,
ROBERT CHALMERS.
EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR.
SIR,
Downing Street, 18 January, 1912. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch, No. 608, of the 30th of October,* on the subject of the selection of surveyors for the East Africa Protectorate. I am aware that much delay has occurred in making the appoint- ments, but I must point out that the establishment of the new Survey Probationer system, in which the Protectorate Government had agreed to participate, necessarily occupied a considerable time, and that the withdrawal of the Protectorate from the scheme shortly after a number of new posts had been approved in connexion with the registration of land titles in the coast strip of the Protectorate involved a com- plete revision of the arrangements which were in contemplation. It was then neces sary to wait to consult Mr. Townsend before other arrangements could be considered for dealing with the East Africa Protectorate vacancies separately from the Pro- bationer system.
2. As I understand the matter, all vacancies have now been filled with the exception of the two appointments of Junior Staff Surveyor which, in my telegrams of the 28th of July and the 24th of August, I agreed to your filling from South Africa. I gather from your despatch that you have not yet been able to obtain suitable candidates for these vacancies at the terms offered.
3. With regard to the efficiency of the candidates selected, I find that, owing chiefly to the fact that local candidates were frequently recommended for appoint- ment, the number of Junior Surveyors selected at home for service in the East Africa Protectorate has been small compared with the number selected for service elsewhere. With the exception of Mr. F. M. Lamb, who was subsequently transferred to the administrative staff in Uganda, no young surveyors had been sent to the Protectorate from home before the middle of this year, except Mr. Thornhill and Mr. Goulston, who have now been transferred to the grade of Assistant Junior Staff Surveyors. I have already explained the grounds on which they were considered suitable for appoint- ment, and I need only add that they were not selected under the Probationer system, which cannot fairly be judged by the results of their appointment. The system is likely, so far as can be seen, to be of great value in obtaining suitable men for colonial survey appointments, but it has from the outset been a cardinal point that the training must be completed locally. I may mention that the candidates whom Mr. Townsend saw at Southampton were very favourably commented on by the Director-General of the Ordnance Survey.
4. Mr. Townsend would appear to have misunderstood in some measure the object for which his visit to Southampton was arranged. It was then a question whether you should be asked to take steps to fill two, or a greater number, of the vacancies from South Africa, and, if Mr. Townsend was not satisfied that the candi- dates were suitable, he was not under the obligation of recommending any of them for selection for the East Africa Protectorate.. In fact, the allocation of two of the candidates to that Protectorate involved some inconvenience, as the number attending the course had necessarily been fixed without reference to the needs of the Protec- torate, and vacancies elsewhere had in consequence to be held over.
5. In referring to the absence of information here as to the qualifications desired, Mr. Townsend has, I think, overlooked the fact that the basis on which
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• No. 56.
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