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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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SIB,

(Confidential.)

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Colombo Museun, Colombo, 15th January, 1927.

I have the honour to address you on a question which is not unconnected with the adjustments in the salaries of public servants upon which a Select Com- mittee of the Legislative Council is at present engaged.

2. Any adjustments that are niade will doubtless be governed by material considerations as the cost of living and the relation between the duties of an officer and his pay

"3. But so far as Senior Officers, and particularly Heads of Departments, are concerned there is another factor which merits consideration and for obvious reasons this is not a matter with which the Select Committee can deal.

4. I refer to the new element which has appeared in the composite duties of Heads of Departments by reason of the increased interest shown by Members There can be no objection to this new of Council in departmental affairs. development, on the contrary Heads of Departments welcome any sign of real and helpful interest shown by Members of Council. But even at its best this new phase has brought with it added responsibilities and increased work. Questions asked in Council touching departmental affairs have to be answered; detailed reports have to be prepared for the innumerable Committees of the Legislative Council; information has to be obtained for Government on questions raised in Council: and the private inquiries of Members of Council have to be satisfied Every Head of Department will agree that his duties have been materially increased in the last two years through this cause alone. It is a natural develop- ment to which no one can take exception though it should be borne in mind when adjustments in salaries are to be considered.

5. There is, however, one aspect of this new development which calls for some comment, namely, the anomalous position in which Heads of Depart- ments now find themselves placed in their relations with the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council.

"6. From time to time during the financial year a Head of Department is called to appear before the Finance Committee regarding the finances of his department. Presumably his function is partly advisory and partly to supply information which he alone can give. Until two or three years ago the relations between this Committee and the Heads of Departments were pleasant and all business was carried through in a friendly and courteous manner.

7. Unhappily this state of affairs no longer exists and when a Head of Department appears before the Finance Committee he is frequently treated very much as a lawyer would treat a hostile witness and, moreover, is subjected on occasion to grave discourtesy. To most men such treatment is painful and humiliating and there appears to be no redress.

"8. It is a fact that most Heads of Departments have come to regard their visits to the Finance Committee as the most distasteful part of their official work. They are obliged to listen to criticisms which are sometimes couched in dis- courteous and offensive language and it speaks well for these officers that they have met the situation with a considerable degree of forbearance.

9. My own impression, which may be wrong, is that they do not receive adequate protection from the Chair on these occasions and it may be urged that Heads of Departments are well able to take care of themselves when faced with concrete charges. This may be true enough but the discourteous methods which some Members of Council are pleased to use cannot be condoned, nor can any- thing be said in defence of the manner in which the information upon which these attacks are based, is frequently acquired.

"10. In seeking for information regarding departmental matters I regret to say that Members of Council do not always go to the Head of the Department. In the case of my own Department it is known to me that the attacks made upon my administration have been based upon information obtained from disloyal sub- ordinates. The result of such conduct is that inaccurate information is invariably obtained and the spirit of disloyalty is spread abroad.

"11. All Heads of Departments will agree, I think, that the difficulties of their work have been immeasurably increased partly because of the legitimate desire of Members of Council to learn more of departmental administration and, in a greater degree because of the annoyances and indignities placed upon them in the manner which has been indicated above. Though it is not possible to measure such things in terms of salary or pension I respectfully submit that que

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regard should be given to the changed conditions under which Senior Ollicers are now called upon to serve when the salary adjustments are considered by Ilis Excellency the Governor."

The Honourable

"The Colonal Secretary,

"Colombo.

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** I am, &c.,

JOSEPH PEARSON, "Director, Colombo Museum.

16. When European officers of far more than the average strength of character feel the strain put upon them, and upon their self-restraint, as acutely, and as resent- fully as is revealed in the foregoing letter, it will he realised how much more trying must a similar experience be to a Ceylonese official. The latter lives and moves and has his being in a social environment which renders unfair criticisms of his acts a much more wounding thing than it can be to an European of similar standing; for the European knows that not one of the countrymen and countrywomen in a hundred possesses any knowledge of the persecution to which he is being subjected, and he also knows that, if they were aware of it, they would not attach the slightest importance to the ill things which are being said and written about him by local orators or by the Ceylonese-owned newspapers. This, however, is not the case for the Ceylonese officer; and I, therefore, think that, for the more senior of them a periodical emergence from the political, social and intellectual atmosphere of Ceylon will become increasingly necessary if his efficiency is not to become seriously and progressively impaired.

I have, &c.,

The Right Honourable

1. C. M. S. Amery, M.P..

&c., &c.. &c..

YOUR EXCELLENCY,

Colonial Office.

HUGH CLIFFORD, M.C.S., Governor of the Straits Settlements. until lately Governor of Ceylon.

Enclosure 2 in No. 3.

MEMORANDUM BY MR. FLETCHER.

SIR Hugh Clifford's despatch of the 14th July reached me at the end of that month, and I sent it in the first instance to Mr. Tyrrell, who was at the time acting as Colonial Secretary.

2. Mr. Tyrrell's.report is now attached, and I find myself generally in agreement with it. Given similar emoluments, a European in the Public Service is in my opinion definitely worse off than a Ceylonese. The cost of living in Ceylon, is considerably higher for the European. The European lives in more or less permanent exile. le is separated almost entirely from his children, and over long periods from his wife. He has no permanent home. His expenses for education of children and for keeping an establishment for them and for his wife in England are very heavy. He is bound to maintain a style of living which is much in excess of that which he would maintain in similar circumstances in England, and much in excess of that which the Ceylonese maintains in Ceylon; the reason being that he has to conform to the somewhat extrava- gant standard set by the general European community. The European Public Servant during the period of his leave in England, having no permanent furnished abode, lives in an expensive manner in hotels and boarding houses

3. It is a recognised fact that a man drawing a certain salary in respect of work in England requires a considerably higher emolument to induce him to go out to do similar work in Ceylon. I may instance that in 1924 the Crown Agents invited me to assist them in selecting a candidate from their Clerical Staff for seconding for two years to Hong Kong, and there was no applicant at less than double pay, the Crown Agents concurring that this was reasonable. So with the Ceylonese. Even within Ceylon itself a Tamil will take a smaller emolument to work in Jaffna, and a Sinhalese would certainly forfeit pay rather than be sent to Jaffna; and both would require a far higher emolument for work in some other Colony than that which they would accept at home.

4. Sir Hugh Clifford points out at page 7 of his despatch that Ceylonese of the old school regard the salaries paid to Ceylonese with aggrieved surprise, as being an extravagant folly. I concur that the Ceylonese salaries in the upper branches of the

Paragraph 5 us printed.