63
495
C. 73230/9/30 '[No. 7].
No. 16.
THE OFFICER ADMINISTERING THE GOVERNMENT to
THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Received 12.40 p.m., 5th June, 1930.) TELEGRAM.
[Answered by No. 17.]
No. 64. 5TH JUNE. Your telegram 2nd June, No. 43.* Salaries Commission. I am taking no action pending your consideration of further despatch which leaves by the next mail, but in the meantime I should be glad to learn at once, for Budget pur- poses, whether you approve the acceptance of the Salaries Committee Report in regard to medical and sanitary services and certain judicial posts vide paragraph 11 of Stanley's despatch No. 292 dated 7th April.t
C. 73230/9/30 [No. 8].
No. 17.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to
THE OFFICER ADMINISTERING THE GOVERNMENT.
(Sent 5 p.m., 18th June, 1930.) TELEGRAM.
No. 56. Your telegram of 5th June. I approve of submission to Legislative Council of proposals in paragraph 11 of your despatch of 7th April, No. 292. If you consider it expedient to press upon the Council modification of those proposals of the Salaries Committee, which Stanley in paragraph 6 of his despatch regarded as un- acceptable, I should be prepared to support your action.-PASSFIELD.
C. 73230/9/30 [No. 11].
No. 18.
THE OFFICER ADMINISTERING THE GOVERNMENT to
THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(No. 476.) MY LORD,
(Received 30th June, 1930.)
Queen's House, Colombo, 11th June, 1930.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Your Lordship's telegram No. 43 dated 2nd June, 1930, in which you intimated that you did not see your way to accept the proposal for the appointment of a Salaries Commission made in Sir Herbert Stanley's despatch No. 292 dated 7th April, 1930.†
2. It is with considerable diflidence that I venture to request Your Lordship to reconsider that decision, and I only do so because I hold strongly the opinion that the failure to appoint a Salaries Commission at the present juncture will seriously diminish the prospect of a successful inauguration of the new Constitution, and will involve the future Government of Ceylon in endless difficulties. I should, I conceive, be failing in my duty if I did not acquaint Your Lordship with the reasons for which I hold that opinion. It is of course possible that the more nature judgment of Sir Herbert Stanley may not coincide with mine in every particular, and I am happy to think that Your Lordship will have the opportunity of consulting him fully in regard to the contents of this despatch.
3. A day or two before the receipt of Your Lordship's telegram under reference, I had received from Sir Robert Johnson a memorandum indicating a fairly extensive reorganization of senior posts which he considers will be necessary in order to provide. suitable machinary for the proper working of the new Constitution. Having under- gone an operation for appendicitis on 26th May I did not feel able to devote imme-
† No. 13.
‡ No. 16.
* No. 15.
diately to Sir Robert Johnson's proposals the careful consideration which they merit: and in any case I do not propose to reach a final decision thereon until I have had an opportunity of discussing them fully with Sir Wilfrid Woods after his return from leave on 23rd June. I had, however, reached the conclusion that the creation of certain new posts (apart from such new posts as will be necessary in direct connexion with the State Council itself), and some readjustment in the present administrative machinery will be necessary, and will involve an alteration of the scales of senior salaries. I had in fact drafted a telegram to that effect to Your Lordship which was about to issue when your telegram of 2nd June was received. I enclose a copy of that draft telegram for your information. I do not propose to enter into a discussion of Sir Robert Johnson's proposals at this stage, but merely mention them because they furnish an argument in favour of the appointment of a Salaries Commission which was not present to the mind of Sir Herbert Stanley when he wrote his despatch of 7th April.
4.
I do not, however, ask Your Lordship to reconsider your decision merely because I conceive that it will be necessary, in connexion with the new Constitution, to provide salaries for a few new posts or to increase the salaries of a few existing posts. Although a Salaries Commission would be the most satisfactory means of fixing such new salaries and increases of salaries, it might be possible to persuade the present Legislative Council to accept suitable proposals in this regard without the intervention of such a body, and it would be scarcely reasonable, on this ground alone, to request Your Lordship to reconsider a decision the reasons for which, seeing that it involved the rejection of a proposal made by Sir Herbert Stanley after mature consideration, must have been exceedingly weighty. My reasons for considering it necessary to write this despatch are much more fundamental.
a source of
5. There are, I think, two essentials to the successful inauguration of the new experiment in Colonial Government which is about to be initiated in this Island. The first in order, though not necessarily in importance, is the provision of adequate and satisfactory machinery for the propulsion of a vessel the design of which is admittedly novel and of an experimental nature. Any mistake or omission in this regard may be responsible for a serious breakdown. To devise suitable alterations in and additions to the existing machinery should not be a matter of insuperable difficulty, and I hope to be in a position to submit proposals for your approval some time in July. But I unhesitatingly assert that the machinery for the new Constitution will not really be either adequate or satisfactory until the vexed and long-outstanding question of the salaries of public servants graded in the Civil List has been finally disposed of. It is scarcely necessary for me to remind Your Lordship that this problem has been occupy- ing the attention of the Government, the Legislative Council, and the public of Ceylon for many years, and that the continued failure to solve it has been, and grave embarrassment to the Government. We shall, I consider, fail grievously in our duty to the new Government if we do not make every effort to save them from the embarrassment of entering upon their difficult task with the millstone of this problem around their neck. To continue to search for a solution upon the lines hitherto followed is futile. In his despatch of 7th April Sir Herbert Stanley has detailed the reasons which, in his opinion, underlay the failure of the Salaries Committee appointed in 1926 to solve the problem. I may perhaps be forgiven for venturing the opinion that there was never at any time the remotest prospect of their doing so. The task was, in fact, one which it was unfair to lay before à Committee of this nature. The complexity of the considerations by which they were affected, to say nothing of the suspicions to which they were liable, makes it inconceivable that they should have arrived at an agreed conclusion. The material which they have collected and the opinions which they have expressed are of the utmost value. But a proper decision based upon that material and upon those opinions can, I am convinced, only be reached by an entirely impartial body, and no body composed of local officials and unofficials, however honest and however determined to do their duty, can be entirely impartial. The experiment has failed, the problem remains to be solved, and a new method of solving it must be found. The point which I wish particularly to emphasize is that the duty of finding that new method should not be bequeathed to the new Government but should be fulfilled without delay.
6. The second essential to the successful inauguration of the new Constitution is that it should be entered upon in a spirit of willing and generous co-operation between the permanent officials on the one hand and the State Council on the other. Without that spirit an early breakdown is inevitable. I am happy to be able to express But it would be my belief that to a large extent that spirit is already in existence. idle to deny that it is to some extent marred by the existence of the salaries contro-
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