CO885-11 — Page 320

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON!

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

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more important that a right decision should be reached than that my personal opinion should prevail, I think it best, before stating my own views, to quote in extenso the

Ile has written to me as follows:- expression of his, as submitted to me.

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While public opinion is no doubt ready to endorse in the abstract the principle of an oversea allowance, I am afraid that the putting forward of proposals for anything like an adequate differentiation would arouse a storm of opposition. It is probable that the most that the Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council have had in mind has been the grant to European officers of a small unpensionable allowance in the nature of duty pay, and any proposal to differentiate in pension- able salary by as much as one-third would be bitterly resented as involving unfair racial discrimination.

"There appears to be but one alternative. The Ceylonization of the Public Service has been proceeding apace, but it is presumably the intention of His Majesty's Government, during such period at least as full responsible Government is withher, to retain nucleus of Europeans in senior posts. Under present cireumstances the Legislative Council can defeat this intention by refusing to vote an adequate remuneration, and it may therefore be argued that the Secretary of State for the Colonies would be justified in reserving the right to fix such emoluments as may in his opinion be necessary in order to secure a suitable type of European candidate. The control over the emoluments of Ceylonese officers would remain in the hands of the Legislative Council, who at first perhaps would retain them on the European basis. But I think that force of circumstances, the growing burden of the present unnecessary rates, and the gradual diminution of The European cadre, would in time bring the Ceylonese salaries more nearly to an economic level."

7. My criticism upon Mr. Fletcher's proposal is that it seems to me to involve a measure of racial discrimination far more radical than that of an automatic and constant differentiation in the rates of pay. It would in effect introduce, or be repre- sented as introducing, a diarchical principle into the administration of the public service. It would divide public servants into two distinct categories, of which the one, the Ceylonese-or more probably the Asiatic, since British Indians would, no doubt, have to be comprised in it-would be controlled, in respect of its emoluments, by the local legislature, and the other, the European, would be controlled in that respect by the Secretary of State. It would, I fear, place the Secretary of State in a position likely to become increasingly invidious, and likely to be increasingly resented here. I should be sorry if an impression were to be created, however erroneously, that the Secretary of State's personal interest was confined to the one category and detached from the other. Moreover, I conceive that, in order to prove effective, Mr. Fletcher's proposal would have to be carried further, and that the Secretary of State would have to reserve or assume, not only the right of fixing the rates of European emoluments, but also the power of appropriating the funds required for the payment of those emolu- ments to such officers as he might see fit to appoint. Otherwise, the risk apprehended by Mr. Fletcher that the Legislative Council might defeat the Secretary of State's intention by refusing to make the necessary financial provision would be as great under the new system as under the old.

8. The plan which I have in mind contemplates that advantage might be taken as a result of the of the constitutional changes which may be assumed to be impending appointment and visit of Lord Donoughmore's Commission, to secure the existing and accruing rights of present members of the Public Service (including, of course, their Pension Rights) and to place the future administration of the Service on a sound statutory basis. If, as is to he hoped, the recommendations of the Commission should facilitate the offer of a constitution consonant at once with reasonable prudence and with reasonable local aspirations, a constitution which would he regarded by public opinion here as desirable in itself and as a generous recognition of political adolescence, I would suggest (a) that provision for the full protection of all existing and accruing rights of all existing public servants (irrespectively, of course, of colour or race or domicile) should be made in the new Order in Council or other instrument, and (b) that the date of commencement of the new instrument should be made dependent upon the prior enactinent by the Legislative Council of a Public Service Ordinance satis- factory to the Secretary of State. Certain requirements upon which the Secretary of State would think it necessary to insist might perhaps be specified in a covering despatch and among them I should like to see the following included, subject throughout to the above-mentioned preservation of existing and accruing rights :-

(1) that the whole Public Service should be graded, and that the grades and seales of salaries at rates not lower than those at present payable should be scheduled;

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that, subject to the consent of the local legislature, the scheduled scales and rates of pay could be increased by the Governor-in-Council, but that they could not be reduced save by an amending Ordinance.

and as

(2) that in the case of (u) all Civil Service salaries, and (b) all other salaries of not less than £400 or Rs.6,000 per annum the rates and scales to be scheduled shouhl in respect of 75 per cent. of the present total, be shown as "basic rate of salary

in respect of 25 per cent.; that all present oflicers Oversea allowance whose salaries fell within either of these two categories, would continue to draw the Oversea allowance irrespectively of any question of domicile, but that future entrants should not be entitled to the Oversea allowance unless they were domiciled elsewhere than in Ceylon or India, and that the basic rate should be the rate which, as suggested above, should not be liable to reduction save by an amending Ordinance. The limita- tion, mentioned above, to salaries of £400 and over involves some difficulty in regard to the relation inter se of salaries lying round about this point, and it is evident that some dove-tailing will be required, but this is not a matter which I need now discuss in detail.

(3) that all officers domiciled elsewhere than in Ceylon or India should be entitled to draw Oversca Allowance at the rate of not less than 334 per cent. of their respective basic rates of salary, and that in all cases in which the salary was pensionable, the Oversea allowance also would be pensionable.

(4) that, subject to the preservation of existing leave and passage privileges to all officers now in the Service, the Ordinance should (a) require the Governor-in- Council to make regulations providing for all officers entitled to Oversea allowance such leave and passage privileges, similar to those now provided, as would enable them to proceed on home leave with their families, generally on the present basis, not less than once in every four years of service; and (b) empower the Governor-in-Council to provide by Regulation, subject to the concurrence of the local legislature, for oflicers not entitled to Oversea allowance, but being either members of the Civil Service or drawing salaries of not less than £400 or Rs.6,000 per annum, such leave and passage privileges as, with due regard to the officer's position in the Service and the nature of his duties, might be thought appropriate all payments in respect of passage privileges to officers in either of the above two categories to be non-pensionable. Study leave to be dealt with by separate regulations.

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(5) that housing-accommodation or house allowance, as the case may be, should continue to be provided on a basis not less liberal than under the Regulations now in force.

(6) that any amending Ordinance should be specially reserved for the signification of His Majesty's pleasure!

9. As regards Item (4) in the foregoing paragraph. I may observe that I agree with Sir Hugh Clifford in considering it desirable that Ceylonese officers in the Civil Service or in fairly high positions in other branches of the Public Service should, for the enlargement of their minds and the adjustment of their sense of proportion, be enabled to pay periodical visits to Europe. I do not think it necessary that they should enjoy such a privilege as frequently as once in four years. Once in seven years would seem to me amply sufficient, but the point is not one upon which I would advocate interference by the Imperial Authority with the discretion of the local Legislature.

10. You will doubtless consider, in the light of my Confidential despatch of the 29th December last, whether-and, if so, how-the question of the Pension rights of future entrants into the Service should be dealt with in such legislation as I have suggested above,

11. I have not overlooked, of course, that the Civil Service Association has represented to the Special Commission its desire for the adoption of the Indian prece- dent, whereby the Civil Service would be removed from any control hy the local Legislature and placed directly under the Imperial Government. In conversation with the Committee of the Association I suggested to them the alternative expedient of the local enactment of a Public Service Ordinance satisfactory to the Secretary of State, but the suggestion did not commend itself to their judgment. Without wishing to prejudice in any way the consideration of their proposal, I think it my duty to say that they did not succeed in convincing me of the wisdom of the course which they advocate, but the Special Commission will be in a better position than I to advise whether the Indian precedent is one which could advantageously be incorporated in the general scheme of their recommendations. The members of the Commission are

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