CO882-10 — Page 251

Printed for the use of the Colonial Office.

40406

No. 24.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR.

(Confidential.)

SIR,

Downing Street, 1st September, 1920. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Confidential despatch of the 17th June* regarding leave of absence and rent allowances.

2. I agree that it is no longer desirable that the grant of leave of absence to (1) Police Officers, (2) Subordinate Officers entitled to free passages, and (3) other Officers, should be governed by different sets of regulations, in spite of the fact that the first two classes will continue to be entitled to free passages after the time when the temporary grant of free passages to the third class has come up for reconsidera- tion. The reason for this is simply that conditions have so changed in this country that it is no longer practicable for Police or Subordinate Officers to live here for any length of time on their half-pay. In these circumstances it is not possible to maintain the stipulation made in my predecessor's telegram of the 24th December, 1918, that full-pay leave granted to Subordinate Officers should be regarded as commuted pay leave to be debited against leave earned in the future. In any case this stipulation was only intended to be of temporary application. On the whole, however, I am inclined to think that the recalculation which you propose may involve unnecessary complexity, and that the best arrangement would be simply to assume that the old arrangements have held good in respect of leave which has been granted up to, eg., the date of the receipt of this despatch or the nearest convenient date thereafter, any full pay leave taken in accordance with my predecessor's telegram of 24th December to be counted for this purpose as if it were half-pay leave, and the stipulation referred to above to be withdrawn.

3. I agree to your proposal that in future Officers should be permitted to accumulate vacation leave up to a total of five months (at the rate of one and a-half months per year of service) to be taken in conjunction with five months' leave on commuted pay or half-pay, or partly on commuted pay and partly on half-pay. Officers should be given to understand that the rule by which an Officer who takes any commuted pay leave may not have more than ten months' leave in all, will be rigidly enforced.

4. I have given careful consideration to the views which you express on the subject of rent allowances. The new proposal which you make, viz., that Officers should pay six per cent. on salary for accommodation suited to their seniority and position in the Service, which they rent with the approval of the Government, will apparently involve your Government in heavy expenditure, but I presume you are satisfied that this can be met. In these circumstances I approve your proposal subject to the proviso that the arrangement must be regarded as provisional and subject to withdrawal or modification, if necessary, at the end of the same period as the free passage scheme.

I have, &c.,

Eastern

No. 133.

CONFIDENTIAL.

CEYLON.

CORRESPONDENCE

[April, 1920 to July, 1921]

RELATING TO THE

ADMINISTRATION OF

(In continuation of Eastern No. 129.)

MILNER.

43496

No. 25.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR. (Sent 5.37 p.m., 16th September, 1920.) TELEGRAM.

YOUR despatch 19th July, Confidential; exchange allowance; proposal approved.--MILNER.

* No. 22

+61286: not printed.

↑ No. 28

COLONIAL OFFICE,

September, 1921.

250

CEYLON.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

IIIII

Reference :--

C.O. 882/10

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