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418

TRE

PECORD

OFFICE

Reference -

C.O.882/12

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

|ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE 81 PEPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- || COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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in addition foreshadowed a reduction of the subordinate staff of Foresters, Forest Rangers, Forest Guards, &c.

5. In the month of July following the publication of this Sessional Paper the Minister placed on the agenda of the State Council a resolution inviting the Council to accept the recommendations contained in the above-mentioned report. “This resolution has been on the Order of the Day of the Council for more than fifteen months, but it has never been debated. In view of this fact and of subsequent developments, it would serve no useful purpose to discuss in detail the recommendations in the Sessional Paper in their relation to the general problem of forest policy. I think, however, it can be said without any unfairness to the Minister and his Executive Committee that it is patent that the Committee's avowed objects of "exploiting the existing natural could not be resources and making Ceylon "self-supporting in its timber supply advanced, much less achieved, by arrangements which, so far as I can understand them, would for the time being, at all events, have practically confined the Depart- ment's activities to such reafforestation as the exiguous staff proposed could carry out and would have left the protection of forest reserves and the prosecution of utilization schemes to the Revenue Officers.

"J

6. When these proposals were first brought to the notice of Sir Graeme Thomson, he informed the Minister in a letter dated the 12th of September, 1932, that he could not commit himself to approval of far-reaching proposals involving a re-orientation of forest policy and a reduction and reorganization of the departmental staff in advance of discussion and approval of such proposals by the State Council.

7. From February of this year until Sir Graeme Thomson's departure from Ceylon in September, forest policy and the staff of the Department have been the subject of repeated discussions between the Governor and the Minister for Agriculture and Lands. These discussions, however, did not reveal any definite plans for giving practical effect to the recommendations on forest policy contained in the Executive Committee's report as published in Sessional Paper VIII-1932. Two schemes which contained the broadest outlines of a proposed forest policy were prepared on the instruc- tions on the Minister early this year by the Department. One of these was prepared by Mr. F. J. S. Turner, Deputy-Conservator of Forests, who had recently acted as Conservator and was about to retire from the service. The other was prepared by Mr. A. B. Lushington, also a Deputy-Conservator of Forests, while acting as Con- servator. Neither of these schemes appears to have been finally accepted by the Minister and at a conference held on the 17th of March. 1933, with the Minister, the Chief Secretary, and the Financial Secretary, Sir Graeme Thomson, at the request of the Minister, agreed to a

policy and directed the Chief Secretary, the "mark-time Financial Secretary, and the acting Head of the Department to suggest for the con- sideration of the Minister a cadre of superior officers which would suffice for this "mark-time "policy. A cadre was suggested accordingly, but the Minister refused to accept it on the grounds that it did not provide for a sufficient reduction of the salary cost of the Department. In communicating his refusal the Minister raised the question of the competence of the present staff" to handle efficiently or effectively the work of the Department when the depression passes over, the times improve and the country undertakes new works of development both of exploitation and of reafforestation including impregnation." He added that "when such times do come we must get other officers.'

S. From that point onwards the discussions between Sir Graeme Thomson and the Minister centred mainly round a comparatively small question of the cadre of superior officers for whom provision was to be made in the Estimates for 1933-34 which were in course of preparation at the time that the Minister refused to accept the cadre suggested to him by the Chief Secretary, the Financial Secretary, and the Head of the Department (vide preceding paragraph). The really vital question as to what is to be done now with the forests of Ceylon receded into the background, and re-emerged later in the form of the Minister's proposal to obtain the services of an expert.

9. After considering a report by the acting Head of the Forest Department, Sir Graeme Thomson had stipulated that provision should be made in the draft Estimates of the current year for at least elevén officers above the grade of Forester, i.e.. officers of the grade of Extra Assistant Conservator, Assistant Conservator, Deputy- Conservator, and Conservator. After discussion between the Financial Secretary and the acting Minister (the permanent Minister was absent from the Island on a visit to England) in connexion with the draft Estimates, provision was made for a Conservator (Head of the Department) on a reduced salary of £1,200 and 10 Assistant Conservators

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on £500 £900, i.e., a total of eleven superior officers against seventeen for whom provision was made in the preceding year. The only compulsory retirements in the superior grades which this provision involved was the compulsory retirement of one Assistant Conservator of Forests, who had previously given notice of retirement under Article 88 of the Order in Council but had been allowed to withdraw that notice, and one Extra Assistant Conservator, four posts either having already fallen vacant or being about to become vacant as a result or retirements under the Order in Council and retirements at the age of fifty-five.

10. On the other hand, the draft Estimates contemplated the suppression of all the posts above the time scale (£500-£900) except the post of Conservator of Forests and a serious reduction of the status of the last-named post. The supra-time scale posts on the authorized strength were five posts in the grade of Deputy-Conservator, three of them on £900-£1,100 and the other two posts on £1,100-£1,200. Four of the five posts were vacant and the post of Head of the Department (on £1,200) was then intended for the occupant of the fifth post. Sir Graeme Thomson pointed out that the complete disappearance of these five posts would involve a serious impairment of the prospects of the officers on the time scale and pressed for the retention of at least two of them and for an increase of the provision for the salary of the Conservator of Forests. The Minister found himself unable to accede to Sir Graeme Thomson's wishes on either of these points. Certain officers now on the time scale submitted a memorial on the subject of the impairment of their prospects involved in these altera- tions of the supra-time scale posts in the Department and their memorial will form the subject of a separate despatch.

12.

11. The draft Estimates also contemplated a drastic reduction of the subordinate grades of the Department, involving compulsory retirements, but, as it would be possible to recall to service the majority of those retired from these grades, Sir Graeme Thomson acquiesced in these reductions, and I need not discuss them in this despatch. At the committee stage of the Budget proceedings the permanent Minister, who had by then returned to the Island, moved, and the Council accepted, an amend- ment of the provision for the Forest Department which involved the reduction of the superior staff to one Deputy Conservator of Forests (to act in the now vacant post of Conservator, with additional remuneration at the rate of £50 per annum pending settlement of the question of the status of the post), 8 Assistant Conservators, and 2 Extra Assistant Conservators. The result of this alteration of the Estimates was that while Sir Graeme Thomson's stipulation that provision should be made for at least eleven superior officers was complied with, the compulsory retirement, as on abolition of office, of two officers of the gradle of Assistant Conservator became necessary, while, at the same time, two new officers will have to be recruited to the grade of Extra Assistant Conservator, a grade hitherto recruited from the ranks of the technically- trained Foresters ( a subordinate grade). The question of the selection of two officers of the grade of Assistant Conservator of Forests for retirement on abolition of office. in accordance with the provision made in the Budget is at present the subject of a separate discussion with the Minister and will be submitted to you for decision in due

course.

13. The forest staff which will thus be available in six months' time is, shown below in comparison with the staff for which provision was made last

year :- Superior Staff.

1932-33.

1983-84.

1

Conservator of Forests (£1,400–£1,550)

Nil

2

Deputy Conservator of Foresta (£1,100–£1,200)

1

11

Assistant Conservator of Forests (£500–£900)

2

Extra Assistant Conservator of Forests (Rs.3,600-6,000)

2+

16

11

Subordinate Staff.

J0

Foresters

62

Forest Rangers

150

Forest Guards

9

Forest Overseers

231

10

38

98

9

155

* Two of these will be absent from the Island throughout the year. one having been selected for training as Utilization Officer and the other having been granted à Commonwealth Fund Fellowship at Yale University.

+ The two Extra Conservators of Forests in office in 1932-33 have retired and will be replaced by new recruits or promotions from the grade of Forester.

}