CO885-(18-19) — Page 666

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O.885

19 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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REPORT.

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27. With regard to the position of the Crown Agents towards the Colonial lovernments and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the view which has been uggested in some quarters that the Crown Agents are rather the masters than the ervants of the Colonial Governments and are not sufficiently amenable to Colonial

structions is a misconception.

The Crown Agents are the Agents of the Colonial Governments, and as such are ound to carry out the instructions sent to them by the Colonial Governments. But heir distance from their principals and their knowledge of the markets render it ecessary that, in order to secure satisfactory results, the Colonial Governments should ive them considerable discretion in certain matters; moreover, they act not for one 'olony but for many.

For these reasons, they form part of the general machinery of Crown Colony overnment and are necessarily subject to the instructions of the Secretary of State. 'heir relations to other Colonies and to the Secretary of State may sometimes render impossible for them to carry out the instructions of a Colony with the despatch r in the exact manner which a particular Colonial Government might desire.

The fact that the Crown Agents are allowed, especially in financial matters, con- iderable discretion in transacting a Colony's business, and that it is their duty to oint out to a Colony if and when its interests could best be served by some modifica. ions in its orders, certainly does not enable them to overrule the maintained opinion of Colonial Government. They may appeal to the Secretary of State from the decision f the Colony, and ask for his instructions on uncontroversial matters when the question surgent and cannot wait for reference to the Colony; but the Secretary of State lecides all such questions on his own authority in virtue of his powers of control wer the Crown Colony Governments, and the Crown Agents can only act on his nstructions, and have no independent authority.

On this question the Committee feel that the evidence which they have taken leaves no doubt.

28. It is obvious that no one Crown Colony Government can claim any effective voice in the organisation of the Crown Agents' Department, which must remain

bsolutely in the hands of the Secretary of State.

29. The organisation of the Office is given in Appendix I., and a list of the staff n their classes, with their rates of salary, will be found in Appendix II. The work

of the office is divided between a number of Departments, which for the most part consist of a Head (Class I.), a Deputy Head (Class II.), two or more Section Heads who are members of Class III., and a number of Class IV. Clerks and Boy Copyists. Two divisions—the Stock and Coupon Department and the Correspondence branch-are composed, the first mainly and the second entirely, of Lady Clerks. The Crown Agents divide between themselves the supervision of the operations of these Depart- ments, and from the evidence it would appear that that supervision is now not unlike that exercised by the Heads of an ordinary Government Department transacting similar work. The operations of the Office have become too numerous to allow of a Crown Agent giving detailed personal attention to any but the more important questions, and a considerable amount of responsibility is accordingly imposed on the Heads and Deputy Heads of Departments, acting on general lines laid down by the Crown Agents.

30. The nature of the work of the Crown Agents' Office is very similar to that performed by the Stores and Accountant General's Departments of the India Office, and the methods employed appear to be much the same. The chief differences appear to be two. In the first place the mechanical part of the loan work-the receipt of applications, the allotment and registration of stock, and the payment of interest is performed by the Crown Agents' Office, while in the case of the India Office, where the loans are generally speaking much larger, the work is done by the Bank of England on behalf of the Secretary of State for India. The loan work appears to be carried out by the Crown Agents in a satisfactory manner, but there is not, in the opinion of the Committee, any ground for considering that this work could not be performed with equal efficiency under the organisation of a Government Department. The other difference is in the large number of Governments in various stages of development and subordination to the Home Authorities which the Crown Agents serve, compared with the centralised Indian system. The diversity in requirements and the impossibility of adopting uniform patterns equally suitable

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CROWN AGENTS' ENQUIRY COMMITTEE:

for all the Colonies tends to render the work of the Crown Agents' Office somewhat more complex than that of the India Office, and calls for the employment of a relatively larger staff than might otherwise be required. The same considerations also apply to a comparison with the Buying Departments of the War Office and the Admiralty.

31. The India Office, the War Office, and the Admiralty appear to have no difficulty in maintaining proper control over their staffs without the absolute powers which the Crown Agents regard as essential for the proper working of their Office. The power to withhold increments in case of unsatisfactory work and to grant special rewards for exceptionally good services and the dependence of promotion ou merit afford in the Civil Service adequate inducements to good work.

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32. The Committee do not recommend that the Crown Agents' Office should become either a Department of the Colonial Office or of the Home Civil Service. Such a change would not be acceptable to the Colonies, and no particular advantage would be gained by it. The functions of the office have no immediate relation to the Home Government, and the Treasury have always very properly avoided anything which might indicate responsibility for the acts of the Crown Agents.

33. In the opinion of the Committee the Crown Agents are officers of the Colonial Governments serving in England under the ultimate control of the Secretary of State. Such a position is not inconsistent with the appointment, discipline, and payment. of the staff on Home Civil Service lines; it is analogous to that of the India Office, which is organised on the lines of the Home Civil Service, but is paid from Indian Funds.

3. In the case of the India Office, however, Parliament is annually afforded the opportunity of criticising the administration of the Department when the Indian Budget comes before it.

No similar occasion is available in the case of the Crown Agents' Office. The Committee recognise the importance of affording to Parliament adequate opportunities of reviewing the operations of the Department, and they accordingly suggest that such steps should be taken as Parliament may consider desirable to bring the expenditure within their direct cognizance.

35. The Committee recommend that the staff of the Crown Agents' Office should be given definite scales of salary based upon those in force in the Home Civil Service. The staff appear to be unanimous in desiring this, and when in 1904 a Committee investigated the grievances of the Office, their report showed that the chief cause Appe of complaint was the uncertainty of rates of increment or of the maximum and VI minimum salaries of the various posts. This uncertainty and the consequent dis- content are, in the opinion of the Committee, more detrimental to the working of the Office than such relaxation of the absolute control of the Crown Agents over their staff as would be involved by the adoption of definite scales of salary on Civil Service lines. The change would not exclude the stoppage or reduction of increments for unsatisfactory work, and the grant of special rewards in the case of exceptional merit. The Crown Agents would retain the power to dismiss members of the permanent staff in case of misconduct, or to make special appointments from outside when the interests of the Service demand it, subject of course in both cases to the approval of the Secretary of State, who would exercise the same control over the Office expenditure as the Treasury exercise over the expenditure of ordinary Departments of the Home Civil Service.

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36. Previous to 1901, the regular staff of the Office was selected by the Crown Agents on their own initiative, but without definite plan or educational test. This system dates from the commencement of the Office before the principle of competitive examinations was established for the Civil Service of this country. Excluding

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