CO885-(16-18) — Page 647

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.885

18 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

| ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE

BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- | COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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it to Sir F. Rogers on the 18th of May, 1865,

as follows:-

"The Governors' Pension Bill dis- appoints me much. It is true that it will make adequate provision for the officers to be benefited by it. But I never made much account of the plea of justice to the officers. They knew the conditions and What seemed to accepted the service.

me worth considering was the public interests. The Bill will not, as we had hoped, help us in weeding the Service; but on the contrary, as you say, it will In all cases in materially hinder us.

which the Secretary of State has been or shall be betrayed into appointing an unfit man (and it is a service in which fitness cannot be known without trial), he will be almost constrained to continue him in employment till he shall have earned a pension; and this will not be till he is 60 years of age. And, as you observe, the Bill will not aid the transference of the best men in the permanent Colonial Service to an administrative career, since under Section 11 their permanent Colonial Service will not count towards a Gover- nor's pension.* It may be that a better field of candidates will be opened at home than we have had heretofore, but the permanent Colonial Service would always be a most important field; and in the Fast 20 years it has given us most of our first rate Governors - Stephenson, Walker, Wodehouse, amongst them."

""

17. There are three classes of persons from whom Governors are chosen :-

(1) Persons who have not previously held any pensionable appoint- ment under the Crown;

(2) Naval and military officers who have either been granted or will eventually be qualified for a pension in respect of their ser- vice in the Navy or Arny; and

(3) Permanent Civil Servants, Imperial or Colonial, who will be quali- fied, on attaining the pension- able age or on becoming physi- cally or mentally unfit for service, to receive a pension in respect of their permanent civil service.

The Governors' Pensions Acts of 1865 and 1872 appear to have been framed primarily to meet the case of Governors who had no previous pensionable service; but at the present time,

• This was altered by the Act of 1887.

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when Governors are usually selected from the permanent Civil Services of the United Kingdom and the Colonies or from the Army and the Navy, it is more important to provide for the case of those who have had previous service qualifying for pension.

18. The points which have been noted from time to time for consideration when the oppor tunity occurred may be grouped under the fol- lowing heads :—

(a) Extension of the Acts to Pro-

tectorates.

(b) Graduation of the pension.

(c) Service qualifying for pension.

(d) Pensionable age.

(e) Civil Servants not qualified by service as Governor for Gover- nors' pension.

(f) Civil Servants qualified for Gover-

nors' pension by service as Governor only.

(g) Naval and Military Officers.

(a) Extension of the Acts to Protectorates.

19. The Acts, which originally applied only

to officers who had administered the Govern- ment of a "Colony," were extended by the Act of 1887 to the High Commissioner of Cyprus. It is now desired to extend them to the officers administering the Government of other Pro- tectorates administered like Colonies, although not legally forming part (as Colonies do) of His Majesty's dominious, viz, :—

Southern Nigeria,

Northern Nigeria,

Weihaiwei,

British Central Africs,

British East Africa, Uganda, Somaliland.

If the Protectorates are named in the amend.

ing Act, Southern Nigeria should be included, because Sir W. Egerton was for a time High Commissioner of the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria before becoming Governor of Lagos and ultimately Governor of the Colony and Protec- torate of Southern Nigeria; but it would be more convenient that the Acts should be applied to Protectorates generally so that a fresh Act would not be required if any change should take place, such as (e.g.) the amalgamation of Uganda and the British East Africa Protectorate.