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8. We understand that the views here set out are shared by the Public Services' Association, which represents some 25 Government Departments; we note that the Secretary of State has intimated his willingness to sanction the 50 per cent. scheme; and we need hardly stress at this stage the very evident desirability of adopting a scheme which the Public Services of Ceylon would accept with satisfaction.

A. N. STRONG,

Honorary Secretary, Civil Service Association. Colombo, 17th May, 1981.

39

I concur in your proposals for the commutation of compensatory pensions, and I approve of the adoption of the table included in the draft regulations. I see no sufficient reason for delaying the issue of the regulations in order to obtain actuarial opinion on the table, which seems adequate for its purpose.

L. J. B. TURNER, Acting Chairman, Civil Service Association.

C. 83342/31 [No. 1].

I have, &c.,

PASSFIELD.

No. 9.

C. 83242/31 [No. 8].

No. 7.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR.

(Sent

4

p.m., 1st July, 1931.)

TELEGRAM.

CONFIDENTIAL. No. 131.

Your Confidential despatch of 19th May.*

scheme. I approve proposals. Despatch follows.-PASSFIELD.

C. 83242/31 [No. 12].

No. 8.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR. [Answered by No. 10.]

(Confidential.)

SIR,

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(Received 17th September, 1931.)

(Confidential (2).) MY LORD,

Pensions

Downing Street, 13th July, 1931. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Confidential despatch of the 19th May,* submitting proposals for the issue of regulations under which certain classes of officers may be allowed to retire prematurely on proportionate pension, and to confirm my telegram of the 1st Julyt in which I conveyed to you my approval of the scheme which

you recommend.

I appreciate the care which you have taken in the presentation of your proposals, and I am grateful for the lucid exposition which you have given of the considerations which led you to adopt a scheme in this form. I recognize the ability with which the details of the scheme have been worked out by Sir Wilfrid Woods, and I shall be glad if you will inform him that I associate myself fully with your commendation of

the

great

I

value of his services in this task.

of approve your action in discussing your proposals with the Service Associations. I shall be glad if you will in due course inform those Associations that I have given the most careful consideration to their representations, but that I am satisfied that the terms of compensation set out in your final scheme, coupled with the grant of the continuing option to retire on those terms and with the comparative security which, under the new Constitution, is given to the salaries and conditions of service of public officers, afford a reasonable and satisfactory solution of the whole question, and that I could not justify the grant of terms materially more favourable. I trust that the Associations and the public service generally will loyally accept and abide by my decision. I feel that I can rely on them to do their utmost to ensure the success of the new Constitution.

I fully agree with the views expressed in paragraph 6 of your despatch under reply. I do not consider it possible to base the Ceylon scheme on any comparison with the terms granted in other countries where the conditions of service are widely dissimilar. I entirely accept the views expressed in paragraph 9 of your despatch, and I cannot admit that public officers have any additional claim to compensation in respect of earlier changes in the Constitution.

* No. 6.

t No. 7.

[Answered by No. 11.]

Queen's Cottage, Nuwara Eliya, 24th August, 1931 I HAVE the honour to invite a reference to the twelfth paragraph of Sir Bernard Bourdillon's Confidential despatch dated 11th March, 1931,* which dealt with a request made in a memorial from the Civil Service Association that an independent Commission- be appointed to investigate and report upon the extent to which Europeans should in future be employed in the several public services of the Colony and upon the conditions of their future employment. The memorial in question also suggested that, pending the satisfactory settlement of this question, the further recruitment of European officers should be stopped.

2. I find myself in agreement with the reasons which induced Sir Bernard Bourdillon to advise Your Lordship to reject the request that a Commission should be appointed for the purposes indicated by the Civil Service Association. The Board of Ministers are now considering, suo motu, the question of the appointment of a Com- mission to decide the conditions of employment of future entrants into the public services, and I am not without hope that they may, in the course of the next few months, be able to persuade the State Council to ask Your Lordship to appoint such a Commission. I have, however, found it necessary to give immediate consideration, with particular reference to the Civil Service, to the question of the further recruitment of European officers.

The

3. As Your Lordship is aware, the Special Commission on the Constitution recommended the appointment of a Salaries Commission, and they considered that an important task which could advantageously be entrusted to this Commission would be the duty of determining the ratio of recruitment as between Ceylonese and Europeans for each branch of the public service. They further recommended that the new Order in Council should invest the Secretary of State with power to fix the ratio of recruit- ment for the various branches of the service at his discrétion. It appeared to my predecessor, in drafting the Order in Council, unnecessary to follow up the second recommendation, as the fact that appointments to the only posts to which Europeans are appointed are made by the Secretary of State himself automatically gives him the power to regulate the proportion of Europeans and Ceylonese recruited. suggestion that the Salaries Commission should fix the ratio of recruitment as between Europeans and Ceylonese fell to the ground with the failure to appoint such a Com- mission. Personally, in regard to services other than the Civil Service and the Police, I regard the fixation of such a ratio as neither desirable nor practicable. In all other branches of the service it is now the accepted principle that European officers are only appointed when suitably qualified Ceylonese are not available. The Unofficial Members of the late Legislative Council did, it is true, complain upon certain occasions that this principle had not been followed, and that Europeans had been selected to fill appointments for which qualified Ceylonese were available. But with the principle itself they had no quarrel. Should the State Council at any time raise the question of

* C. 83243/31 [No. 4]: not printed.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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