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PUBLIC RECORD

OFFICE

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Reference :-

C.O.885

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

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it, unless we moved every official about at Imperial expense, like Governors are now; and when officials got to remote parts of the world, they would find the expense of living much larger than in a place where they had been brought up, or in which they had previously gained some local experience; and this would tend to necessitate increases in the salaries of the higher appointments in various Colonies, when the gentleman from home is often discontented, while the local official can live. in what he regards as comfort, on about half the emoluments.

Isn't this already done to

some Eastern Colonien ?— R. L. A.

With a single Colonial Civil Service it would be no easy matter to maintain a variety of conditions as to leave, pensions, travelling, and other allow- ances, &c.; such variety is practically necessitated by conditions of climate, modes of travelling, &c. In my opinion our Colonial Regulations are already too uniform and rigid in this respect, as there is a great deal to be said for paying once in so many years the passages home and out of every European the extent of one-third in officer sent to distant Colonies like Straits and Hong Kong, where the natives must be in great measure governed by Europeans, and where regular leave to Europe is a practical necessity to the average European officer, a system which would be out of the question in the case of the Mediterranean, and many West Indian Colonies, where Europeans make much more permanent homes, but is alrendy in operation on the West Coast of Africa.

In some Colonies it is advisable for Governments to house a great many officials, whereas in others there is no such necessity; and in some Colonies transport is by cart, in others on horseback, in others by boats, in others by railway, in others on hum backs; in some Colonies stations are far apart, and officers have to spend a good deal of time away from their residences; in others such a large part of the Government business is transacted in a single town that hardly any travelling at all is required; and all these various conditions, which arise from natural causes, are serious impediments to unifor mity and simplicity of administration, and therefore render it desirable to leave the determination of them as far as possible in the hands of local Administrators, whenever they are fairly capable; whereas a single Civil Service, organized for such a variety of conditions, contemplates everybody depending on a central authority at home, and must materially increase the work of that central office.

I believe the War Office now do not attempt to compel any one to serve on the West Coast, but give altogether exceptional terms to volunteers.

(4.) Historical and Constitutional Difficulties. Several of our largest Crown Colonies have been acquired from Foreign Powers; and their revenue systems, as well as their laws, and their religious establishments, have come down with but slight changes to the present day. This has entailed a

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considerable number of distinctive features in their administration, which can only be learnt by experience, and make it less' desirable to be constantly shifting such officers as magistrates and heads of department, as is possible in more purely English Colonies, and as would be more incidental to a combined service.

But more than this, the whole tradition of this department for at least this century has been to govern the Colonies, not as a whole, but as separate local entities, each with a separate Governor, Executive Council, and separate local Legislatures ; and many Civil Service questions have been dealt with by these Legislatures in all sorts of ways that would be found to impede a brand new ent-and-dried Civil Service scheme→ however well organized-drafted at, and sent out from, home, Our Governors' “ Commissions and Instructions," and our very L.F. form “J. 2.” Yes. Au Act of Parlia as to the appointment of officers in Crown ment would be required to Colonies, puts them under Colonial Governments, alter this, which is the law and leaves the Secretary of State only a power in

as laid down in the Courts.

The wording of the L.F.F. the back ground. By Act of Parliament the was altered some years ago. Secretary of State for India has various statutory to bring them into accord- powers, eg, as to borrowing monies, which the ance with the decisions of Secretary of State for the Colonies does not possess the Courts in certain cases. -R. L. A.

in

any Crown Colony.

Possibly some of our paraphernalia might be dis- pensed with with advantage in the smaller Crown Colonies; but on the whole, considering that the bane of Empires has been bureaneracy and over- centralisation, I doubt if it is expedient to weaken the powers of Governors, and to substitute that of the Secretary of State in Crown Colonies generally; and a combined Civil Service, not under a single Governor-General. but under many Governors, would inevitably have a tendency to look to the Secretary of State as their real master, and to disregard their more immediate chiefs.

The above considerations would not operate to the same extent to prevent the grouping of the Services of a few Colonies, which are more con- tiguous to cách other, and where the circumstances of race, language, climate, constitution, &c., are more or less identical or similar, eg., the West African Colonies.-some of the West Indian,— and some of the Eastern; but it is precisely in these localities that attempts have been made at "federation" (of which a joint service has been claimed to be the great advantage), and these attempts must at present be considered to have Yes. The West African ended in failure, as what was done in the seventies Colonies were united in in the Leewards, and on the West Coast, in this accordance with the recom- direction has been more or less undone in the menilation of the Select eighties and nineties; and what has been done Committee of 1865, but the

plan didn't work, and they have now been separated.

R. L. A.

more recently in the Straits and Hong Kong has only been carried a very little way, and the Seychelles have been gradually for some years past dissociated more and more from Mauritius.

It is for those departments to say more precisely why these attempts were not successes, and whether it would now be possible to re-attempt

As