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European "I had in mind the training and Minister quotes that in using the term experience of the existing European staff and no consideration of race. Moreover, I added that it was a practical certainty that within a period of five years a number of vacancies would occur in the grade of Irrigation Engineer, and that on the occurrence of each vacancy the position could be reviewed. I think you will agree that this is 1 do not by a very different view from that which the Minister attributes to me. any means insist that the Irrigation Department must employ 14 European Engineers for the next five years at least. What I do contend is that 14 European Irrigation Engineers are required now, since no Ceylonese Assistant Engineers have yet qualified for promotion as Irrigation Engineers; that 14 Europeans will be required for so long as all the Ceylonese Assistant Engineers remain unqualified for promotion; that this may or may not be as long as five years; but that in any case, even with two additional Temporary Engineers now placed on the permanent establishment, a sufficient number of vacancies will occur among the Irrigation Engineers during the next five years to ensure that there will be room for the promotion of any of the Cevlonese Assistant Irrigation Engineers who by that time may have proved themselves fit for promotion. In other words, I consider it to be a practical certainty that at the end of five years, the time at which the services of the two Temporary Engineers could be dispensed with if they were not retained on further agreements, these two Engineers will not he redundant in the sense that their presence on the permanent establishment will exclude from the Irrigation Engineer's grade any Ceylonese who may by that time he fully qualified for promotion to that grade. If that view is correct (and I am con- vinced that it is correct) it disposes of the only possible reason for retaining the two Temporary Engineers on further agreements for five years instead of on the permanent establishment.

6. I have never denied the possibility of Cevlonese-Assistant Engineers becom- ing fully qualified to receive promotion as Irrigation Engineers within the next five years, and I need not discuss that portion of paragraph 9 of the Minister's letter in which he presses the claim of Ceylonese Engineers to be regarded as fit for such promotion.

7. You will observe that the Minister does not agree with me that a number of vacancies will almost certainly occur within the next five years, and points to the fact that except for the Director all European Engineers in the Irrigation Depart- ment are under 43 years of age. In considering only the possibility of retirement on account of age, the Minister has left out of account certain other causes of retire- ment. In the first place, it should be remembered that of all work undertaken by Europeans in Ceylon the work of Irrigation Engineers is probably the most arduous and damaging to health, from which it follows that retirement on grounds of physical unfitness is a possibility which every European Irrigation Engineer must contemplate. In addition to this, all the European Irrigation Engineers now in service have the option of retiring voluntarily under the Order in Council, and the present unfortunate controversy over the cadre of their department, and the reduction of their senior technical staff to an extent which is quite certain to place a very heavy burden of work and responsibility on those Engineers who remain, are circumstances which will certainly not minimise the possibility that voluntary retirements may occur within the next five years. It is also possible that, in addition to vacancies caused by retire- ment, vacancies may occur by increase of cadre. I think it is legitimate to hope that the present financial depression will not continue for five years without the slightest improvement, and it is a practical certainty that the slightest lifting of the depression would lead to a demand for the extension of irrigation activities and an increase of the present irrigation staff, which is admittedly the bare minimum required for a policy only one degree short of complete stagnation.

Taking into account the three possible causes of vacancies which I have enumerated above, I remain confident in my belief that sufficient vacancies will occur during the next five years to absorb anv Ceylonese Assistant Irrigation Engineers who nay by then have proved themselves fit for promotion.

8. I need not deal at any length with the tenth paragraph of the Minister's letter, in which he contends that since the two Temporary Engineers are required only for a temporary purpose, they should be retained on a temporary basis, and points to the Japan, Mysore, 'Iraq, Russia, temporary employment of "foreign" Engineers in "

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and other countries as a procedure suitable for adoption in Ceylon. It is hardly necessary to discuss the Minister's view that the practice in these countries might well

be taken as a model for the Colonial Empire. I have nowhere denied that it would be perfectly proper to engage on a temporary basis any European Engineers who were required for a purely temporary purpose. My contention is that these two Engineers will be permanently required, and it is for that reason that I consider that their retention on further agreements would not be proper. I am not aware that there are any

posts in the Public Services of a permanent and pensionable nature for which Celyonese are being recruited on a temporary non-pensionable basis" in circumstances which afford any parallel to the present case.

Y I very much regret to observe that the Minister, in paragraph 11 of his letter, has again thought fit to level a direct charge of insincerity against the Director of Irrigation. It was unfortunate that this charge should have been made in the letters which formed Annexures III, IV, and VI, of my despatch No. 324, and that I should have had to refer to it in my despatch, since it is probable that all these documents will be published. But I consider it far more regrettable that the Minister should have repeated the charge after receiving my assurance that I had not the slightest reason to doubt the Director's sincerity, that he should have done so in a letter which he asks you to authorise him to publish, and that he should have added the most damaging statement that other instances of insincerity or incompetence (it is not clear which) on the part of the Director could be brought to your notice con- fidentially if necessary. I fear that the publication of this attack upon the head of a large Government Department will have a most deplorable effect upon the, morale of the Irrigation Department and upon its relations with the Ministry under which it works. It cannot be without a very unfortunate effect upon the morale of the public service as a whole and upon the confidence of the country in its public service. Although I have considered it to be my duty to draw your attention to this unfortunate aspect of the present correspondence, I do not for this reason suggest that the corre- spondence be withheld from publication, for I fear that refusal to publish the corre- spondence would have an even worse effect than publication.

10. I turn now to the suggestions made in paragraphs 13 to 16 of the Acting Minister's letter that I acted unconstitutionally in certain respects. I do not propose to address you at any length in regard to these suggestions, for 1 feel that it will be apparent from a consideration of the full statement of the reasons for my action. given in ny despatch No. 324 and in previous correspondence with the Minister that there was nothing unconstitutional in my decision or in the procedure by which it was reached.

It is, in my opinion, entirely in accordance with the principles of the constitution that the Clovernor's reserve powers should be used, in case of necessity, to maintain in any department under the general-control of an Executive Committee, no less than in any department under the general control of an Officer of State, a staff of public servants adequate in number for the execution of essential works or services for which the Committee or the Officer of State is responsible. Moreover, as I have more than once had occasion to observe, I consider that the Governor is responsible under tlie constitution for the efficiency of the Public Service. If he is to discharge this responsibility adequately it is essential that he should be able to rely on the advice of his Officers of State and I regard it as the duty of the Financial Secretary, to whom the subject of Cadres of Staffs has been allotted, to bring to my notice any instance in which the proposals of an Executive Committee would result in the provision of a staff inadequate in number for the duties which the staff must perform. The Financial Secretary is the only Officer of State who is in a position to give the Governor that assistance, for he is the only Officer of State who corresponds with Executive Com- mittees on matters of establishment.

11. It seems possible that in concentrating upon the functions of the Financial Secretary the Acting Minister has given insufficient consideration to the responsi- bilities of the Governor, both in regard to the number of the staff required and in regard to the terms upon which its members should be appointed. He makes no reference whatever to the fact that before making any decision upon the recom- mendation of the Executive Committee in regard to the latter question I had received advice not only from the Financial Secretary but also from the Public Services Com- mission, a body expressly created by Article 89 of the Order in Council to advise the Governor in the exercise of the powers, including the power of appointment of public officers, conferred upon him by Article 86.

12.

At the end of paragraph 14 of his letter the.Acting Minister asks for your ruling upon the interpretation of the Schedules to the Order in Council. I have never

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