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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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Reference :-

C.O.88

18 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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Fifteenth Day. 14 May 1907.

INTERCHANGE OF PERMANENT STAFF.

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Mr. DEAKIN: He makes the appointments. Ministers emnot differ from the recommendation of the Public Service Commissioner without laying the whole case before Parliament, and stating the grounds on which they propose to reject it. If it is rejected the Commissioner makes another nomination.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER: He has the appointment, and you cannot dissent, except for cause?

Mr. DEAKIN: Except for cause laid before Parliament and approved. That interposes another set of considerations. There being no direct power of control in Ministers, that is to say, there being no control by appointment or dismissal in the hands of Ministers, the service having a certain independence of its own, it becomes all the more necessary for us to exercise our criticism. Rewards and punishment are dispensed by the Commissioner, whose task it is to maintain efficiency. Our departments, free from patronage, might become merely mechanical in methods without criticism. Perhaps in that way we pay something for our freedom from the burden of patronage, and the many annoying associations connected with it. So that when we criticise a public service, it need not be, and certainly has not been in any criticisms I have uttered here, a reflection upon the capacity of those engaged. It certainly is no reflection upon their integrity. Every country has its public service, and so far as I am acquainted with it, no country has a public service of a higher standard of Great Britain and its Dominions. The criticism of a public department does not necessarily mean a challenge either of the ability and certainly never of the honesty of its members. There are public departments in every other country besides our own. An interesting but rather imaginative gentleman who waited upon me some little time ago, and afterwards was good enough to credit me in the public press with some of his own observations, pointed out that in his own country the bureaucracy was dominant, extremely capable, not, in his opinion, extremely efficient, but He pointed to his own more powerful than ministries and parliaments. country and certain other Continental countries as indicating what he called the rule of the bureaucracy. I told him then frankly that we saw something of that spirit even in our own country. We saw something of it in this country. But neither showed the state of things described by him. Our public departments were in much closer touch with our legislature, and not, as he suggested, sometimes almost in revolt against it. I mention the incident because it is partly the reason why I have made these preliminary remarks before coming to the question of the possible means we suggest for the consideration of the Secretary of State in regard to the Colonial Office. We make similar suggestions in our own country for every department. Possibly if we were associated with every public department in this country we should make it in all here. It is only because it is the Colonial Office with which we are directly connected and in respect to which we have a title to be heard, because its operations directly affect us that my observations are confined to it. I hope I have cleared away any possible misapprehension in this regard.

The Colonial Office has, apart from the very important relations of which it is channel, not only the most extensive, but the most difficult task, that a department can be called upon to perform. The very ablest men of Great Britain, if they were public servants in this department, collected into this building, shut up in it, and left dependent upon what they read or hear to understand the conditions of the hundred and one forms of government and varieties of conditions under which the Crown Colonies and other self-governing Colonies grow up, would be quite unable

203

The

to cope with them. What is done in the Crown Colonies is done with officers of this department; that is to say, their whole services are composed of members of this department. They return here more or less frequently, certain of those now in this office having been employed in the Crown Colonies, and certain of those who were in this office having been sent to the Crown Colonies. By this means there is a certain interchange which keeps them in touch with one another, and most essential that touch is. But with regard to the self-governing Colonies, the only officer who does come and go is the chief officer of all, the Governor or Governor-General, as the case may be. His functions are of so general and of so serious a character that they are not numerous. He does not come into frequent relations with many of the departments of the government he administers, and looks down upon their working from an altitude which, though advantageous, does not permit of the intimate acquaintance with them which Ministers necessarily gain; moreover, when he is transferred to another government, or even when he returns to this country, his services and knowledge appear to be employed to a comparatively limited extent. Consequently, we have at present an altogether insufficient means of touch between the Dominions which we specially represent and the officers in Downing Street with whom we are in continuous relation by correspondence. Most of the officers here are necessarily working for people who are living under conditions unknown to them. That is more true of tropical countries or those in which there are coloured races, but it applies to some extent to the great self-governing Dominions. We had one illustration here in relation to the Emigration Board, showing that even when they were dealing with our own people and our own circumstances, a most regrettable want of knowledge and a most distinct want of sympathy were displayed. I do not see how any effort on the part of able men here can suffice unless they are assisted by direct means of knowledge and of assimilation. body politic would be unhealthy, and must remain unhealthy, as our own would if the circulation of its blood were impeded, and so must this office unless there is some continuous intercommunication of a personal character We kept up.

We have suggested in this resolution several means. propose that men of experience in the outer Dominions might be selected to fill some vacancies that occur here. I do not know enough of your system of appointment and promotions in the public service in this country to judge how far that is practicable, but the suggestion made is that, where practicable, such appointments when made might be extremely advantageous. What seems much more feasible are temporary interchanges or, at all events, periodical visits of officers. The idea we had in temporary exchanges was that just as we are now sending our military officers to Canada, to South Africa, and to this country to complete their training as members of the military service here, while British officers come to us to gain colonial experience, there might be a similar advantage from an interchange of officials, of about the same salary and standing, so far as it could be arranged between this office and the Colonies. We have always some military officers away from Australia, gaining experience of service elsewhere. Why should not some of our civil officers be employed here, their places being taken in our country by the officers whose work here they would for the time being assume? By this means we should obtain in each office men who after being twelve months in the other country would have gradually absorbed a great deal of that knowledge which is necessary for the interpretation of despatches, especially on important subjects where they are affected either by local conditions or local situations. That is a method which would only involve something for travelling expenses. It would not be expensive, and might prove extremely valuable also to the men from the Dominions over the seas who were temporarily employed in this office. They would be able to

Fifteenth Day. 14 May 1907.

INTERCHANGE OF PERMANENT STAFF.

(Mr. Deakin.)