REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES TO EN. QUIRE INTO THE INTERNAL ECONOMY OF THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE AND OTHER MATTERS LATING THERETO.
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
MINUTE OF APPOINTMENT.
I hereby appoint Mr. W. A. 8. Hewins, M.P., Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Sir Thomas Heath, K.C.B., K.C.V.O., F.R.S., Joint Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, and Professor Sir James Dobbie, D.Sc., F.R.S., Government Chemist, to be a Committee to enquire into the internal economy of the Imperial Institute, the present allocation of the work among the staff, and the proposals put forward in the letter of the 28th of February from the Chairman of the Executive Council for increasing the staff and improving their position and generally on the recommendations contained in that letter. I appoint Mr. Hewins to be Chairman of the Committee.
I desire that the Committee shall also report on the question of recognition of the scientific work of the staff of the Institute.
I also desire that the Committee will enquire into and report upon any other matter affecting the Imperial Institute that may be referred to them by the Treasury or the Secretary of State for the Colonies, or any other relevant matter that may arise in the course of their investigation and may appear to them desirable to be included in their report.
October, 1917.
(Signed) WALTER H. LONG,
Secretary of State for the Colonies.
I.
1. The history and functions of the Imperial Institute are set out at some length in the Final Report of the Dominions Royal Commission, pages 76 and following. This report also shows the restrictions of its functions as compared with the original objects contemplated in its Charter and it did not appear to the Committee to be necessary to devote special attention to the historical aspect.
2. The enquiry of the Committee has consequently been confined to the existing functions of the Institute and to the re-organization and developments which it is proposed to effect with
the additional income which the Treasury is asked to provide.
3. The work of the Institute is at present carried on under the three main divisions of :—
(1) Investigation. Scientific and Technical Department;
(2) Intelligence.-Technical Information Bureau; and
(3) Exhibition.-Galleries and Sample Rooms.
4. The staff attached to these divisions numbers 77 and the annual charge for salaries, wages, and other expenses is about £11,700. The Executive Council propose that the staff should be increased to 102, which would involve an expenditure of £20,435 in the first year, rising in five years as increments of salary became due to £28,600.
5. The total annual expenditure of the Institute, which was estimated at £18,623 for the year commencing 1st April, 1916, would in future amount to £28,585, rising to £37,676—–— administration, general expenses, pension fund, printing office and labour staff absorbing £8,150-£9,075. The present income of the Institute may be taken to be approximately £17,000, including the grant-in-aid of £2,500 per annum from Imperial Funds. While therefore, to give effect to the scheme of the Executive Council, the amount required from the Treasury would be only £11,585 for the first year, after five years it would amount to £20,675.
6. The grounds on which this large increase of staff and income is claimed are (1) that the present staff is too small to cope with the work, especially in view of the additional work resulting from the new constitution imposed upon it by the Act of 1916, and (2) that the scale of remuneration is insufficient to enable the Institute to retain the services of experienced assistants.
7. In the event of the necessary funds being made available the Executive Council's scheme provides for the creation of a new "Raw Materials Department," of which the existing Scientific and Technical Department and the Technical Information Bureau would become respectively the Investigation and Intelligence Branches, each being placed under a Controller with a salary of £600-£800.
8. It is proposed that the work of the Investigations Branch should be arranged in the following seven groups: -(1) Timbers and fibres; (2) rubber, gums, and resins; (3) foodstuffs, including tea, coffee, cocoa and sugar; (4) minerals; (5) tobacco, spices and perfumes; (6) oil seeds; (7) tanning materials and dyes. Each group would have a staff consisting of one superintendent and four assistants, whose duty it would be to concentrate their attention on the study of the materials included in their group. The superintendent, in addition to being responsible for the laboratory investigations in his particular group, would be required “to make himself familiar with the actual potential sources of production of its materials and through manufacturers with their actual and potential modes of utilization." He would also act as Secretary of the Technical Committee attached to his group. The present Scientific and Technical Department employs a staff of 26 technical officers; besides attendants, mechanics and clerks, and costs £6,500 per annum. When re-organized as the Investigations Branch of the Raw Materials Department, the technical staff would number 36 and the cost would be £11,450 in the first year, increasing in five years to £16,400. A large proportion, therefore, of the increased income required is for the extension of this branch.
9. The Committee have been unable to discover in the various statements which have been submitted to them any justification for so large an increase of the expenditure on the In- vestigations Branch. From a return furnished by the Director of the samples reported on in the last four years under each of the seven groups into which the work of the branch is divided, it appears that, except possibly in the mineral group, the number would be insufficient to give employment to the staff which it is proposed to assign to each group. This conclusion has been arrived at after taking into account work other than strictly chemical work involved in the preparation of the reports. It seems clear that the Executive Council have based their estimate
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