CO882-(6-8) — Page 368

Eastern No. 92.

CEYLON.

Despatch to the Governor on the Subject of Proposed Increases to the Salaries of the Higher Government Officials.

36395/04.

(Confidential.)

SIB,

Downing Street,

28th December, 1904.

I HAVE had under my careful consideration your confidential despatch,of the 28th of September last on the subject of proposed increases to the salaries of the higher Government officers in Ceylon. It may be well to summarise the result of the corre- spondence which has taken place.

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2. In October, 1903, your predecessor, while recommending certain additional appointments in the cadet service of Ceylon, also enclosed a copy of a report by a representative committee of civilians" embodying a scheme which he considered to be on the whole a moderate and reasonable one," which would "when fully elaborated, form the ground-work for a justifiable and most desirable revision of Civil Service salaries, and may furnish a model on which to frame a general scheme for the re-arrangement of salaries in the Public Service as a whole, should such an extension of the principle involved be deemed desirable."

3. The authors of the scheme suggested in detail increased salaries in sterling. They showed the additional cost, including the pay of seven supernumerary officers, to be Rs. 222,000. They also suggested in the case of four particular officers stationed at Colombo, station allowances at the rate of Rs. 1,000 per annum, being, they said, an extension of an already existing principle.

The total additional expenditure, therefore, which they proposed on the cadet service alone was Rs. 226,000; but this included, as already stated, the cost of additional appointments as well as of increased salaries.

4. I answered this despatch in my confidential despatch of the 5th of February last. In regard to additional appointments, I suggested less than Sir West Ridgeway had advised, and I note that acceptance of my suggestions is recommended by the later committee, whose report you have now forwarded; though they recommend it only as a provisional compromise in view of the additional expenditure, on salaries which they contemplate; and on the merits of the question they consider Sir West Ridgeway's proposals to have been "eminently reasonable and desirable." What I have sanctioned in this respect can now, as you say, be carried into effect, but you will bear in mind that the result of the correspondence as to strengthening the police may be to add further to the number of the members of the cadet service.

5. In regard to increases of salaries, I proposed-not for the cadet service only, but for the whole Government service so far as it is recruited from this country-to double the exchange compensation, adding a penny in every rupee. It would not be perhaps large boon, but it would be a substantial one, varying from £12 108. per annum in the case of a newly appointed cadet, to £100 per annum in the case of the Colonial Secretary.

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