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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

THEPIC.O. 882/11

Wimilluí

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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to support a suggestion made by Sir Robert Johnson, with which, on other grounds, I was inclined to agree. In view of the fact that it was at one time proposed that Sir Robert should be a member of the Salaries Commission I had kept him au courani with the situation in regard to the appointment of that Commission. He suggested to me that the Commission would be not only more useful but also more palatable to the non-official members of the Legislative Council if it were to be a reorganization commission, whose primary duty would be to suggest methods of economy by reorganization, but who would also be entrusted with the duties with which it is proposed to charge the Salaries Commission. For the reasons indicated above I felt unable to support his proposal. If, however, we are faced with a strong demand from the Select Committee on the budget for reorganization of this nature we shall have seriously to consider whether the risk of some dislocation of the administration at a time when such dislocation would be most inconvenient is sufficiently great to justify us in refusing their request, or at any rate in refusing to grant it immediately. There would be obvious advantages in entrusting both duties to one Commission. It is, however, by no means certain that the Select Committee will put forward this proposal, and I do not propose to discuss at this stage what action should be taken thereon, I merely wish to indicate that the proposal may be made, and that if it is made we shall have to consider it not only on its merits but also in relation to the decision to appoint a Salaries Commission.

I have, &c.,

The Honourable

B. H. BOURDILLON, Officer Administering the Government.

Enclosure 1 in No. 21. MEMORANDUM BY SIR W. W. WOODS.

The Colonial Secretary.

WILL you please submit to His Excellency this statement of my views on the proposal to appoint a Salaries Commission. I have not been asked formally for my views and I am aware that the proposal is now before the Secretary of State, but both His Excellency and Sir Herbert Stanley have discussed it with me informally and I have been asked to advise on several points connected with it. In these circum- stances I fell justified in asking that there should be on record a definite statement of my views.

2. It is my opinion, in the first place, that the appointment of a Salaries Com- mission, especially a Salaries Commission consisting of persons from outside Ceylon, is unwise at the present time of an impending serious financial crisis in the Colony, with its inevitable accompaniment of the necessity for additional taxation. In the unofficial world the proposal will probably not have a single friend if it is adopted now. 3. A Salaries revision, however and whenever carried out, is certain to provoke much suspicion, jealousy, and ill-temper. The present time is one when these feelings are particularly likely to be generated and particularly likely to be mischievous.

4. Among Ceylonese politicians it will be taken for granted-and no assurances will dissuade them-that the real object of appointing the Commission is to increase They will know perfectly well the salaries of the British element in the services. that immediate economy cannot be one of the objects.

5. It will be at least 3 months from the time when the Commission seriously begins its work before its report can be received-if, that is to say, the work is to be done with the care and attention to detail that are absolutely indispensable if sound recommendations are to be forthcoming. When the report is received it will have to be very carefully considered by Government. It cannot be assumed that Government will be able to accept the whole of the recommendations made by the Commissioners. As the Commissioners are to be persons not resident in Ceylon, 1 apprehend a possibility at least that their recommendations may have to be considerably modified or even rejected.

6. It must not be overlooked that the Salaries Committee which has already reported on Civil List salaries was a Select Committee of the Legislative Council appointed on a motion introduced into the Council by the Government itself. Members of the present Council, whatever may be their views as to the merits of the report of the Select Committee, are bound to take up an attitude of intense indignation at the action of Government in discarding the work of their Select Committee without reference to the body by which the Select Committee was appointed.

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7. They will say that ordinary courtesy to the Legislative Council required that Either the Government should come Government should take one of two courses.

to the Legislative Council and ask it to concur in entirely rejecting the recommendation of the Select Committee on the grounds that the policy of equal treatment for Ceylonese and Europeans affirmed by the Legislative Council and Government when the Com mittee was appointed was mistaken and ought to be reversed, or it should ask the Legislative Council to make such modifications of the recommendations of the Committee as the Government thinks necessary.

8. 1 have not forgotten the fact that a motion in favour of overseas allowances was passed in the Legislative Council after the Select Committee's report on Civil List salaries had been published, but that motion cannot be interpreted as consent by the Legislative Council to the withdrawal from its further consideration of the whole question of salaries which had already been formally referred to it by Government.

9. While the Commission is at work, and during the subsequent period of con- sideration of its report by Government, an agitation based on the suspected object of the appointment of the Commission will be carried on with full fury. The agitation will attract to itself all those who are dissatisfied with the Donoughmore Constitution and the number of these is certain to grow as soon as the exact character of the control over the services given to unofficials under the new Constitution is realized from a perusal of the articles of the Order in Council and other connected documents.

10. Simultaneously, the expectations of the British element in the services will have been raised to a high pitch by the appointment of a Salaries Commission. It is extremely improbable that any recommendations made by the Commission which the present Government could accept would come up to, or even near, to these expecta- tions. Disappointment will then add to the largely artificial sense of grievance which unfortunately is now characteristic of the British element in the services of Ceylon. 11. The new Constitution, if my apprehensions are well founded, will be launched in an atmosphere in which public opinion is in a state of artificially inflamed indignation and the British members of the services are suffering from disillusionment. I cannot imagine an atmosphere more unfavourable to the success of the new Con- stitution and I cannot understand what advantages are expected from the appointment of a Salaries Commission now which will be anything but dust in the balance in comparison with the enormous harm which it will do. The one real advantage that might be expected is the economy, very small at first but appreciable in the distant future, that would result from the system of overseas allowances. It is probable that the new State Council elected on a wide franchise will favour this system and if it does it will be in a much stronger position to introduce it than the present Government could ever be. There are, in my opinion, enormous advantages in leaving this matter to be dealt with by Ceylonese Ministers and the corresponding disadvantage that the initial economy will be postponed for 2 or 3 years is simply not worth considering.

12. Further, I think there is at least a chance that Ceylonese Ministers would, after a little experience of having British officers to help them. be much more generous in the matter of the overseas allowance to be granted to British officers than the present Government and the Secretary of State could permit themselves to be.

13. In the circumstances which I have indicated. I am convinced that the appointment of the proposed Salaries Commission at this stage would be a serious tactical mistake which is likely to wreck what chances there are of successfully launching the new Constitution and unlikely to result in any appreciable advantage

to anyone.

SIR,

W. W. WOODS, Colonial Treasurer.

12th July, 1930.

Enclosure 2 in No. 21.

Colombo, 12th July, 1930.

The Ceylon Constitution Order in Council. 1930. Articles relating to Appointment of a Salaries Commission.

I ATTACH for consideration, in connexion with the Order in Council establishing the new Constitution, a draft Article dealing with the appointment of a Salaries Commission and with the means of giving effect to the approved recommendations of that Commission.

• Not printed here.