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from the operation of a Federal law, leaving the law to apply to the rest of the territory only. In such a case the State legislation, if any, would continue until the time had arrived to apply the Federal law.

Federal Legislature.

7. If the list of transferred subjects contained in Appendix A can be accepted the Constitution of the Federal Council will be somewhat as follows:

President. The High Commissioner.

Official Members.-The Advisers and Residents (9), the Legal Adviser, the Federal Treasurer, the heads of the main Federal Departments, Customs, Labour, and Post Office (3), and perhaps the Federal Secretary and the General Manager for Railways in all 16.

Unofficial Members. If the official majority is to be preserved the Unofficial "members should not exceed 15 in number so that there is a majority without the President's vote. They will presumably include a planter, a miner, and a business man (all Europeans) and a Chinese and Indian representative. The question of Malay There should be at least one lawyer among them. representation will be difficult as there will not be room for nine Malay mem- bers, and some of the States will not be able to produce a Malay of suitable standing who knows sufficient English to be able to take part in the proceed- ings. On the other hand there may be jealousy if some States have a Malay representative on the Council and others do not.

Federal Executive.

8. The Federal Executive will comprise the purely Federal Departments, i.e., Customs, Labour, and Posts and Telegraphs, the Federal Treasurer, the Legal Adviser, and other purely Federal Officers, e.g., the Registrar of Companies, the Statistical Officer, the Collector of Estate Duty, the Official Assignee, &c. These will not be so numerous as to require a special Federal head interposed between them and the High Commissioner. Disputes between State Governments and Federal Officers can practi- cally only arise in the case of the three big departments, Customs, Labour, and Post Office. While it is proposed that Federal administration should only extend to these three departments in the first instance the Federal Government should retain power to administer any transferred subject directly through its own officers.

ment.

9.

Finance.

Provision will have to be made for the financial needs of the Central Govern- Its main expenditure will consist of the salaries of the officers employed in Federal Departments and the expenditure of these departments, the pensions of It will require a financial European officers and the services of any external loan." expert to calculate the approximate amount required and to say how it can best be provided. The revenues of the transferred subjects, Posts and Telegraphs, Customs, Estate Duty, and Stamps, may be sufficient by themselves, leaving the revenue from the sale of chandu to the States. Or it may be deemed preferable not to allot any particular sources of revenue to the Central Government but to provide that the States undertake to contribute the necessary amount in specified proportions, the ratios to be revised at fixed intervals. The question is one for the financial experts to decide. In connexion with the financial arrangements there will be adjustments to be made over housing and office accommodation and such like matters.

Subjects Left to States.

10. Taking Appendix A as representing subjects allocated to the Central Govern- ment, it will be seen that the residue of powers left to the States is very large. The State Governments will be responsible for the administration of justice and for general criminal and civil legislation; for municipal and local Government, for all land and mining matters, for police, prisons, and the maintenance of order, for public works, including irrigation and water-works, and surveys for harbours, fisheries, and marine matters, for agriculture and forestry, for hospitals and public health, and for education. It will not be necessary to specify these subjects in the treaty, which will only nominate the subjects transferred to the Central Government and confirm the residue to the States.

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Advisory Officers to " Malayan "Departments.

11. A number of the subjects which it is proposed should be left to the States, such as public works, surveys, education, forestry, and medicine, are now administered as Federal Departments, and the new Constitution will involve the breaking up of these into a number of disconnected State Departments. It is not disputed that this will involve a loss in efficiency and two suggestions have been made with a view to diminish- ing this loss. The first of these, that all European officers should be on the Federal establishment, will facilitate transfers and promotions and preserve the unity of the European staff of each Department, and has been mentioned in Appendix A.

The second suggestion is a revival of the original proposal made in 1895 that officers with advisory, but not executive powers, should be appointed to inspect the various State Departments and give advice as how they can be strengthened or improved. One such officer would be appointed to advise as to each "Malayan" Department. His function as an advisory officer might not be his whole occupation and he might have his own Department to administer as well, e.g., the Colonial Engineer might be the Advisory Officer for the Public Works Department. The States will have to undertake to give free access to the inspecting officers and to follow the advice tendered or appeal to the High Commissioner. The inspecting officer will also be the adviser to the fligh Com- missioner as regards transfers and promotions of the European officers.

The main difficulty about this proposal is that officers of sufficient seniority to be advisory officers to the State Governments will be too old to spend their time travelling round, while the spare time of such an officer as the Colonial Engineer will be quite insufficient to enable him to watch the various State Public Works Departments with the necessary care and attention; but some means of keeping the State Departments in touch with each other and enabling them to profit by each other's experience must be devised. It need not be objected that this proposal has already been tried and failed. It is true that an advisory Director of Public Works was a part of the original scheme of federation, though not of the treaty, but the appointment was not filled until 1903, by which time Federal Departments under Federal Heads were under contemplation. The system of an advisory officer was therefore never seriously tried.

Legislation-Federal.

12. It will be noticed in Appendix A that the allocation of subjects proposed for the Central Government involves the passing of some 70 Enactments. These can only be passed by the new Council and this can only be created by the new treaty. There will therefore be a period before the new Council can meet during which existing legislation on these subjects must remain in force. The same difficulty will occur as regards alterations in administration. It will take some little time for the Federal Heads who are now executive officers to establish themselves or to turn themselves into advisory officers, though a beginning can be made without waiting for the treaty. In legislative matters, however, nothing can be done until the treaty is signed. It is sug- gested, therefore, that a Federal Statute book should be prepared as soon as the allocation of subjects has been determined. The laws will be adaptations of the exist- ing laws with little but formal changes and the new Council might be asked to accept the draft Statute book and pass it as a whole. If the printing can be done in Malaya the laws might be ready and in force within a few months from the signing of the treaty. A revision of the Federated Malay States laws is being undertaken at the present time and the preparation of the Federal Statute book can be regarded as a part of this work.

Legislation State.

13. The new State legislation that will be required is not so easy a matter. affects only the four present Federated States and not any other State which may enter It the Constitution. One difficulty arises from the fact that most of the State, as opposed

to the Federal, legislation has been passed by the present Federal Council in identical terms for each State. The revised edition of these laws, and of the still unrepealed laws passed by the separate State Councils and found in Volume I of Voules' Reprint of 1920, can only be passed and brought into force by the separate State Councils, since the old Federal Council will have disappeared and the new Council will not be competent to legislate in these matters. As each State Council can only legislate for its own State.

it will be necessary ultimately to have four State Statute books, the great bulk of which will be word for word identical. It seems a clumsy and cumbersome procedure to prepare a Statute book for the State of Perak containing perhaps 150 Enactments and prepare another for the State of Selangor containing some 145 of these Enactments

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