CO885-11 — Page 478

475

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

PERRICO. 882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

14

respective Committees. Unless I had adopted this course the Conference would have been all but useless. My action was quite evidently accepted as proof of my desire to give the fullest consideration to the claims of the Services and of the trust which I was prepared to repose in their accredited representatives, while I am satisfied that by taking this step no real advantage was surrendered which would be obtainable by the preservation of formal secrecy.

"

>

5. After the Conference (which proved of great value to me) I was able to indicate to the Treasurer the general lines on which a scheme suited to the local cir- cumstances might be framed. The scheme prepared by Mr. Phillipson had from the beginning seemed to me, as also to Mr. Bourdillon, to offer a suitable basis for a satisfactory settlement. I took and still take the view that the maximum compensatory pension fraction should not exceed 74/60ths, which represents a 50 per cent. addition to the maximum allowable under abolition terms and closely approximates to the maximum allowable under the second of the schemes outlined in the despatch under reference. I was also attracted by that feature of the "Phillipson scheme which provides that the maximum shall be attained about the middle of the normal official career. I came to the conclusion, after hearing different views on the subject, and discussing it at length with the Treasurer, that with suitable modifications in the direction of great liberality this scheme would prove suitable for adoption. In par- ticular it seemed to me desirable that the maximum compensatory fraction should be grantable over a longer period; that, if possible, something should be done to meet the view of the professional and technical officers that, a later age than fifty-five being for them the normal age of retirement, the compensation for loss of prospective service should be related to that fact; and that the feature of the scheme, by which service falling short of 15 years would operate to reduce the compensatory additions, required modification in the interests of those officers whose age on first appointment is, for reasons connected with their professional training, usually well advanced. I accordingly instructed the Treasurer to review the problem and, if possible, submit a revised version of the Phillipson scheme which would meet these requirements. In com- pliance with these directions the Treasurer submitted a report dated the 9th May which covers the ground most fully. A copy of this report and of its annexures is enclosed and I desire that this report, with which I am in entire agreement, should be regarded as complementary to this despatch. I also enclose a copy of a memorandum dated 6th May, 1931, by the Committee of the Civil Service Association. I had assured the President of that Association (Mr. de Glanville), after the Conference on the 24th April, that I should be pleased to transmit to Your Lordship any further representa- A further repre- tions on this subject which his Committee might desire to make. sentation from the Public Services Association made in response to a suggestion by the Treasurer (vide paragraph 11 of enclosure I) is also forwarded herewith and forms an annexure (B) to the Treasurer's report. While this despatch was under preparation. and after the Committees of the two Associations had been informed of the terms of the scheme which I had finally decided to recommend (the scheme described in enclosure I), the two Committees submitted supplementary memoranda and requested that these should be attached to the representations to which I have just referred. The supplementary memorandum from the Civil Service Association dated 17th May, 1931. will be found immediately below their memorandum of the 6th May, 1931, which forms enclosure II with this despatch. The supplementary memorandum of the Public Services Association dated 16th May, 1931, is annexed to their memorandum in 6th May, 1931, which forms annexure B to enclosure I. There is no new argument in these supplementary memoranda and I need not specifically refer to them again.

LL

6. I wish at this point to make quite clear to you the fact that the local considera- tion of this problem has proceeded without reference to the terms which were granted to public officers in Ireland, Egypt, and India in connexion with the constitutional and political changes in those countries. Not only is the information available locally more or less incomplete in respect of the terms themselves, the conditions which had to be fulfilled to secure them and the number of officers embraced within their scope; but there is also not unnaturally an absence of exact knowledge of the circumstances in which the political and constitutional changes in those countries took place and the extent to which the public officers were adversely affected by those changes. Without such knowledge a close comparative view of the problem as it presents itself in 'Ceylon is not possible. It seems fairly obvious that both Ireland and Egypt have secured a measure of independence from British authority much greater than that which will be conferred on Ceylon by the new Constitution. With certain qualifications, Indian conditions would appear to be more analogous. A cursory examination of the Indian

16

terms, consisting in the case of the Indian Civil Service of so much of the fixed pension earned after 25 years' gross service as is proportionate to the officer's actual service, does not reveal any obvious or striking contrast, from the point of view of liberality. with the terms which I shall propose in this despatch for the Public Servants of Ceylon, though it is admittedly difficult to make comparisons between two such entirely different pension systems as those of India and Ceylon. These are merely general impressions uncorrected by the exact comparative knowledge which will doubtless be available in Your Lordship's office. I apprehend that Your Lordship rejected the claim urged by the Civil Service Association in their first representation on this subject, that the terms should be based on the terms granted to Irish Civil Servants, because the circumstances present in that case were not parallel with those which now present themselves in Ceylon. If Your Lordship after further consideration of the various representations made by the Civil Service Association (including that forwarded with this despatch- enclosure II) should come to the definite conclusion that compensation ought to be awarded to public servants on a scale which would bear comparison with the compen- sation awarded in any of the other cases referred to. I would feel unable with my limited knowledge of those other cases to demur to a conclusion which would have been reached with a full knowledge of them, and I should not in that case raise objections based on financial grounds. If a comparative review of the problem resulted in such a conclusion. I should be glad if Your Lordship would suggest such modifications of the scheme which I now submit for approval as might be necessary to bring the terms which it offers into line with those offered in circumstances which may be regarded as parallel. Subject to this qualification. I regard the scheme outlined in para- graphs 4 to 7 of the Treasurer's report (enclosure I) as eminently suited to the focal circumstances and I strongly recommend it for approval.

7. I do not wish to repeat in this despatch matter contained in the Treasurer's report (enclosure 1) which, as I have already implied, should be read as embodying the views of this Government on the matters in issue, but I might mention that scheme, Phillipson the scheme, though adhering in its main outlines to the

C

has been adapted to meet the points which I particularly stressed in my directions to the Treasurer. The period of three years between 40 and 43 during which the com- pensatory pension fraction remains static at its maximum has rendered the scheme considerably more liberal to officers who retire during those and subsequent years: the extension of the period during which additions to the compensatory fraction are accruable up to the age of 58 has provided a reasonable concession to those officers who claim that their normal age of retirement is later than 55, the age at which Government can, if necessary, require them to go; and with the removal of the provision for an automatic reduction of the compensatory addition in respect of service falling short of 15 years the technical and professional officers will not be at a disarl- vantage, in so far as their compensatory addition is concerned, as a result of their late age at entry. I agree with the Treasurer that a scheme of pensions which has for one of its objects the award of compensation to officers for loss of career (which is the same thing as deprivation of prospective service) cannot operate fairly or logically if based exclusively on past service. (The Treasurer has developed this point in para- graphs 13-15 of his report-enclosure I). It is for this reason, as well as for the reason that the terms offered seem to be so unnecessarily liberal after 25 years' service in one case and 28 years' service in the other as to offer a definite temptation for officers to retire when Government is least able to spare them, that I am reluctantly compelled to think that neither of the schemes suggested in Your Lordship's despatch would prove wholly suitable.

8. I am sanguine enough to anticipate that those European public servants who are prepared to give the new conditions a trial will tend to be reconciled to the factors in the new situation which are adverse to them, such as the diminution of their authority resulting from their subordination to Ministers, and the loss of their prospects of a seat in the Executive or Legislative Council, by the greatly improved relations which will in my view he practically certain to result from the dependence of Ceylonese Ministers upon the advice and assistance of the Services. It may, of course, happen in individual cases that the position of a public servant, who has the misfortune to attract the hostility of the Ceylonese, possibly as a result of honest and disinterested criticism of unwise proposals in the field either of administration or legis. lation, may be made so difficult as virtually to compel him to retire; but such cases will, I believe, be exceptions to what I expect to be a general improvement in the I find that attitude of the Ceylonese towards the European element in the Services. this opinion is shared by several of my most experienced officers.