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regulation, namely, that the benefit secured by the regulation could not be granted except to an officer who retires in circumstances in which he might have been granted a pension if he had held a pensionable office.

51. The Committee wish to call special attention to the principle involved in this clause because they understand that the exceptional privilege accorded under existing regulations has been made a ground for claiming an absolute right to pension on the three-fourths basis in the case of a large number of officers in Malta, and the Malta Royal Commission of 1911 in their Report (paragraph 92) recommend that the system of a three-fourths pension in certain cases should be abolished altogether in the future. In the light of this objection the Committee have inserted at the beginning of the clause the words "In special cases." Formerly there was no question that this system of the three- fourths pension was one to which recourse was had only in exceptional circumstances, where a person not entitled to a pension had served the Government for a long period and where it seemed inequitable that he should be allowed to retire without some allowance.

52. Regulation 15 was drafted to deal with a question of labourers in Government employ which was raised by the Government of Trinidad. In connection with this despatch all the precedents on the subject of non-pensionable service were investigated by the Committee; and the draft regulation is based partly upon Treasury practice and partly upon a Malta regulation which was introduced some eight years ago. As in the case of the previous regulation it is of the essence of any such arrangement that the treatment should be exceptional, and the Committee have accordingly introduced the draft regulation by the words "In special cases."

PART II-MIXED SERVICE.

53. In preparing regulations as to mixed service the Committee have decided to submit two alternative drafts, for the reasons which they proceed to explain.

54. The scheme recommended by the Interdepartmental Pensions Committee will be found in the following extract from their report:

8. As it is in the interests of the public service to facilitate transfers between the services of different Colonies and between the Home, Colonial and Indian services, we are of opinion that steps should now be taken to make effective the principle of the 1892 Act, viz., that an officer who has served under more than one Government should be entitled to the same pension as if his whole service had been in the office from which he ultimately retires, subject, however, to the proviso that any addition to pension grantable in respect of one post only should be based only on the length of service in, and on the salary received in, that post.

9. We recommend therefore that where a reciprocal arrangement can be arrived at between the Governments concerned, as to pensions for mixed service, it should be provided that the officer should be entitled (i) to an ordinary pension on the whole service calculated on the basis of one sixtieth of the final salary in respect of each year of service, and (ii) to an additional pension in respect of that part of the service, if any, which is spent in unhealthy climates or in a post carrying pension at a higher rate than one-sixtieth; such additional special pension to be calculated on the number of completed years of service, and on the salary received, in such unhealthy climates or in such special post, and on the basis of the excess over one-sixtieth which is allowed in such cases.

10. We recommend that the share of the ordinary pension falling on the first of the employing Governments should be limited to an amount based on the salary drawn at the date of transfer, and on the number of completed years of service up to that date; and that any increase of pension, whether through the subsequent completion of a broken year or through an increase of salary, should fall on the subsequent employing Government or Governments, who will have enjoyed the benefit of the officer's previous experience, and will then only be giving him the same addition to pension as to an officer of the same standing in its own service. On the other hand the whole of the additional pension should fall on the Government or Governinents in whose service it has been earned.

"11. The share of the ordinary pension payable by the second and each subsequent employing Government would thus be the difference between the pension accrued at the date of transfer (or retirement) from its service and the pension accrued at the date of transfer to its service; that is to say, it would be equal to the pension accrued in respect of the service under that Government taken separately, together with any increase of the pension in respect of the previous service arising from a subsequent increase of salary or the completion of a broken year." The Secretary of State approved these recommendations, and the Lords Com- missioners of the Treasury were informed in a letter dated 23rd July, 1908, that, on learning that a Bill would be introduced to give effect to them so far as pensions payable from Imperial funds were concerned, he would take steps to have the necessary amend- ments made in the Colonial pension laws and regulations.

55. The Treasury, however, instead of adopting the recommendation of the Inter- departmental Committee that the Superannuation Act, 1892, and the rules made there- under should be repealed and replaced by the Committee's proposals as to mixed service, merely took power under Section 7 (1) of the Superannuation Act 1909 to amend the

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Rules made under the Act of 1892. Amended Rules were accordingly issued on 31st July, 1911 (Statutory Rules and Orders 1911, No. 707), with the previous concurrence of the Colonial Office. But in applying these Rules to cases arising in those Colonies whose revenues have been declared to be "public funds within the meaning of the Act of 1892, the Treasury regarded themselves as bound to apply the Superannuation (Unhealthy Climates) Act, 1876, to Colonial service, and this has the effect of basing the "additional pension" in all cases on the salary drawn at date of final retirement, instead of on the salary of last appointment in a tropical Colony, as contemplated by the Inter- departmental Committee's scheme; consequently, in all cases where the service is partly in tropical climates and where the officer finally retires from a Colony with a pension scale lower than the fortieths scale applicable to European officers in West Africa, both the total pension and the share of the pension payable by the final employer would be larger under the Rules as interpreted by the Treasury than under the Interdepartmental Committee's Scheme.

56. The Treasury was approached with a view to the amendment of the Super- annuation Acts; but it was subsequently agreed in semi-official correspondence that the question of fresh Imperial legislation should be postponed for the present and that, pending the passing of any such fresh legislation, No. 9 of the Rules (which provides for mixed pensions being dealt with under the law applicable to each several part of an officer's service) should be applied "to cases arising in any Colonies or Protectorates where divergences in the pension systems render the application of Rule 2 impracticable. i.e., in the case of all Colonies and Protectorates outside West Africa and East Africa," thus leaving the Colonial Office free to arrange for the amendment of the Colonial Pension Laws in the Colonies and Protectorates concerned, "

so as to carry out the system of continuous pensions proposed in the Interdepartmental Committee's Report, while maintaining the principle which has hitherto universally prevailed, that the Colonial portion of the pension of a transferred officer is governed by Colonial laws."

57. More recently a further agreement was arrived at with the Treasury on cases of transfer to Tropical Africa, the effect of which is that they will raise no objection to the application of Rule 9, provided that the officer who is transferred from the Home service has been warned before he takes up his appointment that his pension will be calculated accordingly.

58. Meanwhile, upon certain cases of mixed Home and Colonial service which came up for decision under the Treasury rules, objections to the increased charges resulting from the application of the continuous system were pressed by the Tropical African and Eastern Departments of the Colonial Office, who further urged that the method of apportionment explained in paragraphs 10 and 11 of the Interdepartmental Committee's report (quoted above) intensified the objections to the scheme.

59. So long as there is no substantial difference in rates of salary and so long as transfers in both directions are about equally numerous the method would work fairly and satisfactorily enough. But in the case of mixed Home and Colonial service these conditions do not apply, and an undue share of the pension charges is thrown on the Colonies, especially if tropical Colonies are concerned.

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60. The charge thrown on the Colonies is undue, for the following reasons. will be found on examination that, in any individual case, the administration under which the officer first serves is the most favourably treated. Subsequent administrations are treated less favourably, and the pension charge is most out of proportion to the service rendered when the officer's service under the administration concerned is short, when his previous service is long, and when his salary on leaving the service of the administration is considerably higher than it was immediately before he entered it. Officers retiring from tropical Colonies after previous service at home always draw on retirement a salary considerably higher than that which they draw in the home service, and far more often retire after short service under their last employer than officers transferred in the reverse direction. Moreover, the number of transfers from the Home service to tropical Colonics is far greater than the number of transfers in the reverse direction. The same argument applies to transfers between healthy and tropical Colonies, though to a less degree.

61. It was accordingly argued by the Departments above referred to that if continuity of service for pension purposes were adopted the scheme of apportionment more equitable to all parties concerned was the method used in the West African Colonies and Protec- torates and also in certain other groups of Colonies where continuity of service for pension within the group had been recognised and pension is based on salary at the date of leaving the group.

62. This method is to divide an officer's pension in proportion to the aggregate salary or pensionable emoluments drawn by him in each Colony. It has been in

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