PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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ITILL CO.885
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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will always be filled from within and not from without, the Secretary of State's patronage being so far limited ?
4. If it is possible to form such a covenanted service, how should it be entered in the first instance- by selection, by limited competition, by open competition?
There is plenty to be said under each of these heads, but I do not add to the mass of minutes. I think the question is well worth arguing by a small committee, on which an Anglo Indian and an ex-Colonial-Governor should sit.
I do not know whether there is much to be gained by further systematising, unless it is accom. panied by one or two practical reforms to which I refer below, but I cannot see the inherent impossi bility of setting out in black and white and reducing to better order what are already existing facts.
The practical reforms, as I have called them for want of a better word, are:-
1. The rigid maintenance of the Crown Colony system, and the abolition, as far as possible, of
hybrid constitutions. What is desired cannot be I agree.-E. W. carried out in colonies where salaries and pensions
"depend on the votes of an elected majority.
2. The raising of salaries. Bad pay is at the
root of defects in the Colonial Service
3. Training of men in the Colonial Office. Not only, as at present, should there be interchange between the Colonies and the Office, but, if we have room, I do not see why a few officers, who have deserved well, should not be given special leave from time to time, at the expense of the Colonies, on condition of being attached to and working at this Office. I think Colonial administration must gain by the officers knowing the ways and views of this office from the inside.
There are two other points to be noticed, but not now worked out.
(a) The bigger the service the better the men who come into it. This makes, on paper at any rate, for one Colonial Service, to be supplemented, as in India, by large provincial services for West Indies, West Africa, &c.
(b)It is often said, especially in regard to such a Colony as Ceylon, that Ceylon men should not be appointed to other Colonies because there is no reciprocity, Ceylon having a close service.
Except so far as it is desirable to conciliate local jealousy, I never saw any force in this argument. The object is to get the best men: if this were to be attained by getting them all through one Colony or through India, that means should be taken. can perfectly imagine that there would be better administration in the Colonies if all the high officers had in early life passed through the Indian mill.
28th February,
C. P. L.
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(Lord AMPTHILL.)
I take it that the present object is a discussion of general principles and not an examination of the details affecting the scheme put forward by Lord Selborne. Almost everything that can be said on the general question has already been said, and there seems to be practical unanimity of opinion. I myself am in agreement with most of the opinions already expressed, so far as they are not based on Mr. Harris's figures, which I cannot but regard as extremely misleading. He would have us understand that there are no less than 414 non- No. If you will look professional civilian posts in the Crown Colonies❤ at the return you will see which are filled up by the Secretary of State from that is not so and if you this country. I do not know how this calculation read the introductory memo- has been arrived at, and when the matter arrives at randum you will see that
to
still more clearly-the 414 the stage of going into details it will be necessary, includes all Eastern cadets, before anything else is done, to examine this point it also includes numbers of very carefully. If there were all these non- posts, as to which I speci- professional posts to fill up from this country we Bically state that they are really on the level of sub- should occasionally hear of vacancies, but personally ordinate posts, though during the course of the past 3 years I have nominally head of chief not known of more than half a dozen or so.† posts.-C. A. H.
I attach a memorandum (Misc. 96) which we have They also include the just brought out, and which sets forth as the police inspectorships.
C. A. H.
result of the experience of the last few years, the
† I think I can shew then exact extent of the patronage in the hands of the that within the last two Secretary of State. In it we say ($20) that months, since I have been "there are scarcely any openings for candidates in charge of certain West from this country except for those possessing
African Colonies, three or
C. A. H.
The
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four of these half dozen professional and other special qualifications." have occurred in the few openings for young men from this country who, are not lawyers, soldiers, doctors, engineers, etc., are of course nearly all in the West African Colonies, and these places are now being filled by, the newly established Gold Coast Cadetships. So far, however, there has been no competition on the part of candidates of the required education for these posts. We are in fact now experiencing the greatest difficulty in finding a suitable candidate for the third vacancy. We tried some twenty or so of the men who were just out of the successful list in the last Civil Service Examination, but they would none of them look at it. If there is no competition for these posts when they are given by selection, what would it be if an examination were to be established?
The explanation of the divergence between the real facts and the specious possibilities which Mr. Harris's tables set forth is that the posts which he has classed as "Civilian Chief Officers are filled by promotion from the subordinate class or by the appointment of local candidates. The establish- ment of a Colonial Civil Service on the model of the Indian Civil Service would practically exclude the local candidate, and would therefore be bitterly resented in the Colonies, and particularly so in places like Mauritius and Malta where there is no scope beyond the Government service for young men of the Colony.
A comparison with India does not appear to me to be possible, for although there are no doubt in India even greater differences of race, language and