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5. I cannot accept the contention that Ceylon is unable to meet the burden of this essential provision for the Government Service. Taxation in Ceylon is very light in comparison with that in neighbouring Colonies. The increase in the Government expenditure since the years before the War has been in Ceylon far less than in other Colonies of comparable importance, and it was obviously necessary that some additional revenue should be raised to maintain essential services.

6. I fully approve of your action in bringing the Salaries Scheme before the full Council, and in allowing the official members to vote for it. This course was in accord with constitutional practice; and in this connexion I cannot accept the construction placed by certain members on the views expressed by a former Secretary of State in totally different circumstances.

7. I regret that certain members of the Legislative Council should have thought themselves compelled to withdraw from the Council in the face of an adverse vote properly recorded in accordance with the existing constitution, but it is clear that whatever course they adopt, the essential services of the administration must be maintained; and you may be assured of my support in any action which you can show to my satisfaction to be required for this purpose.

8. I leave it to your discretion to publish this correspondence.

I have, &c.,

20108

(No. 190.)

No. 26.

DEVONSHIRE.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

MY LORD DUKE,

(Received 23rd April, 1923.)

[Answered by No. 29.]

Ceylon, 29th March, 1923.

I HAVE the honour to inform Your Grace that in June last the Chief Justice, Sir Anton Bertram, addressed to me a memorandum on the position of the Chief Justice under the new salaries scheme. As the scheme, together with my recommen- dations thereon, had already been submitted to your predecessor and, on his direction, was about to be laid before the Legislative Council, I caused the Chief Justice's memorandum to be printed with other papers for the information of the Council, ride appendix on page 321 of the print entitled "Recommendations from Heads of Departments submitting proposals for the consideration of the Salaries Commission, 1921," a copy of which is enclosed with my despatch No. 191 of even date. the vote for the new Salaries Scheme was passed by the Legislative Council, the memorandum has been considered by the Committee appointed by me to carry out a final revision of the scheme, and their recommendation is contained in para graph 94 of the Report,t six copies of which were submitted separately with my Confidential despatch of 13th March, 1923.

Since

2. The Committee recognize that the net effect of increasing the emoluments (i.e., salary plus temporary increase) of the Chief Justice by £50, and at the same time increasing by £115 the rent which the holder of the office is required to pay for his residence, is to leave the Chief Justice pecuniarily worse off by £65 than he was before the scheme was introduced, and, having regard to all the considera- tions set forth in the memorandum, they recommend as the best solution of the difficulty that the Chief Justice be allowed a house in Colombo free of rent. 3. I concur in this recommendation, and submit it for your approval.

I have, &c..

W. H. MANNING,

Governor, &c.

* No. 27. t Not printed here.

† 16590: not printed.

20109

(No. 191.)

53

No. 27.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 23rd April, 1923.) [Answered by No. 28.]

MY LORD DUKE,

*

Ceylon, 29th March, 1923.

WITH reference to Your Grace's predecessor's despatch No. 313 of the 1st June last, generally approving the recommendations of the Salaries Commission as modified by my proposals in despatch No. 203 of the 12th April last, f preparatory to their being laid before the Legislative Council, I have the honour to report the action since taken.

2. I caused the above despatches, together with the memorandum and schedule attached to my despatch, to be published as Sessional Paper XIII, 1922, and, in order to facilitate study of the proposals, further caused to be printed the recommendations originally submitted by Heads of Departments for consideration by the Salaries Commission. A copy of this print is herewith enclosed. Thereafter, on the 2nd August, a motion was passed in the Legislative Council referring the Salaries Scheme and connected despatches to the Finance Committee of the Council for consideration and report, along with the Budget and new taxation proposals. Eventually the members of the Finance Committee, by a majority of 17 to 8, resolved that they were not prepared to provide for improvement of the emoluments of Government servants except by way of the Passage Scheme, Rent Allowance Scheme and Temporary Increases as agreed to by them and detailed in their several reports. The conclusions thus arrived at did not appear to me to deal adequately with the serious situation which had arisen, and I therefore decided that the inclusion of the full amount necessary to carry out the complete Salaries Scheme should be referred to the whole Council for decision. Accordingly, on 28th September, after the Reports of the Finance Committee on the several proposals referred to it had been laid before the Council, and when the Council went into Committee on the Supply Bill, the Colonial Secretary, on reaching the item regarding the new Salaries Scheme, did not move the reduction of the original figure, whereupon an amendment was moved for the insertion of the reduced figure proposed by the majority of the Finance Committee. A long discussion ensued. with the result that the amendment was lost by a majority of 19 to 18 votes, and a motion to include the original sum was carried by the same majority.

3. In this connexion I accepted the rider added by Sir J. Thomson Broom and Mr. T. Y. Wright to the Report of the Select Committee on the Salaries Scheme, that the acceptance of the scheme should be subject to revision, deletion and adjust- ment in working out details. Accordingly, I appointed forthwith a small committee consisting of Mr. W. W. Woods, the Colonial Treasurer, as Chairman, and Dr. (now Sir) H. Marcus Fernando, Mr. F. A. Stockdale (Director of Agriculture), and Mr. W. T. Southorn (Principal Assistant Colonial Secretary), to make a final revision, where necessary, of the proposals of the Salaries Commission as set forth in Sessional Paper XIX, 1921, and modified by the despatches contained in Sessional Paper XIII, 1922, and to work out details for bringing the scheme into operation.

4. I forward herewith copies of the report of the Revising Committee, which I have caused to be published as Sessional Paper II, 1923. The Committee have not only considered the representations received by Government since the publication of the modified scheme in Sessional Paper XIII, 1922, as well as a number of additional representations addressed to them after their appointment, but they have also generally reviewed the whole scheme, and they now submit recommendations for revision of certain scales, for supplying omissions and correcting certain anomalies. They also submit a detailed schedule showing in respect of every post, class or grade in the Public Service, the new salary as already approved by you, or as now proposed by them (the latter being printed in italics), and the conversion rates for transfer of existing officers to the new salaries on 1st October, 1922, worked out on the lines

+ No. 18.

*No. 16.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

CO. 882/10

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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