CO885-11 — Page 513

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TRELIC.O.882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC.

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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to pay any portion of the fares of himself and his family when proceeding on leave at such intervals as is necessary for the preservation of his health and efficiency. That the cost of living has fallen since 1921 I do not deny. The actual extent of which the cost of living has fallen in the case of an European officer is difficult to estimate but it is not irrelevant to point out that there has, since 1921, been a con- siderable increase in the import duties on a number of commodities normally consumed by Europeans. In any case it is my very definite opinion that the salaries of European officers in Ceylon are, in the words of the Special Commissioners on the Constitution barely adequate to their needs," and that the average European officer (who at present maintains a very moderate standard of living) cannot effect any savings out of his salary. This being so, if he is called upon to pay any portion of his fare, or that of his family, when proceeding on leave, he is inevitably subjected to a degree of financial worry and embarrassment which, in my opinion, no public servant should be compelled to suffer.

10. The third argument raises the broad question as to how far any Government is justified, in times of financial stress, in reducing the effective emoluments of its public servants below the level which has previously been recognized as necessary to enable them to maintain their health and efficiency, to live in a sufficient degree of comfort, and to be free from financial embarrassment. Obviously a condition may arise in any country where the financial situation is so serious that considerations of justice must give way to those of sheer necessity and public servants must hear their share of hardships which are being undergone by the whole population. But such a condition can only arise after all possibilities of raising further revenue and effecting economies in methods of administration have been fully explored, and I do not consider that it has yet arisen in Ceylon. The financial situation is serious. But further taxation is not out of the question, further economies in methods of administration are possible and are actually being effected, and there is no reason to expect that the present depression will last for ever. It is, in short, my belief that the present financial difficulties are temporary and can be overcome, and that a state of affairs has not yet arisen in which the comparatively small saving which would be effected by adopting the first proposal of the Board of Ministers has become so essential that the proper interests of public servants must be disregarded.

11. As I have already said, but little attempt has been made to contest the statement that leave at least once in four years is necessary to maintain the health and efficiency of European public servants in Ceylon. But I consider it necessary to express my own views on this point, and I also consider it desirable that Your Lord- ship's views, whether they coincide with mine or not, should be clearly and publicly stated. It is, I think, beyond question that the number of European public servants who retire from Ceylon without their health having been permanently affected by their service out here is very small, and I consider that no European can expect to maintain a reasonable standard of health unless he takes leave to England at least once in four years. I would, in fact, go further and say that senior officers, whose health has in most cases been already impaired, ought to take leave at more frequent intervals. In the debate on the Budget last year the European Rural member stated that in commercial houses in Colombo overseas employees are given leave every four years, and that even in up-country stations, where the climate may be said to be go home healthy, some agencies and firms insist that their overseas employees should every four years. As a matter of fact several of the commercial houses give leave and free passages to their senior overseas employees at shorter intervals than four years. Apart altogether from the question of health it is scarcely unreasonable that an officer whose children are being educated in England should be given an oppor- tunity of seeing them at fairly frequent intervals. The passage scheme in force in Ceylon is undoubtedly less generous than those obtaining in most other Colonies. The privileges accorded thereunder are in my opinion the minimum that should be maintained in the interests of the health, efficiency, and contentment of European officials. and, if you share my opinion, I consider it high time that a definite pronounce- ment of that opinion should be made.

12. I have based my arguments in favour of maintaining the existing Passage I find myself scheme for European officers mainly on the merits of the scheme. unable to support the existing system of holiday warrants on similar grounds. I agree with the Board of Ministers that the number of holiday warrants granted to Ceylonese officers is excessive, and, in any scheme for new entrants to the services [ should be prepared to support a recommendation that they should be reduced to the number suggested by the Board of Ministers.

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13. There are, however, other considerations which compel me to urge, albeit with some reluctance, that you should not accept the second recommendation of the Board of Ministers. In 1928 the Salaries Committee recommended, in Sessional Paper XLVIII of 1928, certain all-round increases in the pay of Public Servants not graded in the Civil List. The Legislative Council postponed discussion of this report on two occasions, but finally, in February, 1930, it was decided that the proposed increases should be granted with effect from October, 1930, provided that the Government shall take into very early consideration the possibility of revising, without compensa- tion, the leave privileges, travelling privileges, and other hidden emoluments of the officers concerned." A Committee was appointed to inquire into the possibility of revising these privileges. The Legislative Council, however, refused to make provision in the 1930-31 Estimates for the increases in salary which they had already approved, and the Colonial Secretary, rightly, in my opinion, instructed the Committee to cease its inquiries, on the ground that the increase in salaries was a necessary condition of Νο any curtailment of existing privileges. The position now is as it was then. provision has been made in the 1931-32 Estimates for the increased salaries. The officials concerned have had a reasonable expectation, since 1928, that their salaries would be raised with effect from October, 1928. That expectation was raised to the level of a certainty (except that the date of the increase was altered to October, 1930) by the decision of the Legislative Council in February, 1930. And that decision, it should be noted, was based quite definitely on the grounds that existing salaries were inadequate. But the increases have not been granted, and there is no prospect that they will be granted in the near future, if ever. It is greatly to the credit of the officers concerned that they have accepted the situation loyally and without expressions of resentment. But to add to their disappointment by the curtailment of any of their privileges, however excessive those privileges may be, could, I think, only be justified, if at all, on the ground that such action would effect a very material reduction in expenditure.

14. In actual fact the reduction in expenditure consequent on the adoption of the suggestion of the Board of Ministers would be negligible. The extra cost, to the Railway, of carrying these officers when travelling on holiday warrants, cannot amount to more than a few thousand rupees at most. The Railway is at present unable to pay in full to general revenues the amount of interest on capital charges which is due from it, and any reduction in expenditure from general revenues on holiday warrants would be exactly counterbalanced by a corresponding increase in the amount by which the payment of interest by the Railway falls short of the amount due. The only saving would be the very small extra expenditure which is incurred by the Railway in transporting officers when travelling on holiday warrants.

15. I am aware that the arguments set forth in the thirteenth paragraph of this despatch do not apply to the case of officers graded in the Civil List who are entitled to holiday warrants. I do not, however, consider that it would be possible to differentiate between their case and that of the subordinate officials to whom that paragraph does apply, and there is a further argument which applies equally in both cases. The Board of Ministers has pointed out in paragraph FT of their letter that the grant of three double-journey holiday warrants a year is intimately connected with the Passage scheme for European officials. A privilege which allows an officer to visit his home at the public expense three times in one year would not appear to bear very close relation to a privilege allowing an officer to visit his home once in four years. Nevertheless, the two schemes are, historically, connected. The grant of three double-journey holiday warrants instead of one to officials drawing Rs. 4,500/- per annum and under was asked for by the Ceylonese member in 1921 on the specific ground that higher officers had been granted free passages to England, and was allowed by the Government without that ground being disputed. The privilege was later extended to higher Ceylonese officials when and because the privilege of free passages to England was withdrawn from them. If I were to recommend to Your Lordship to reject the first suggestion of the Board of Ministers but to accept their second sugges- tion, there would inevitably arise in the minds of the Ceylonese in general, and of Ceylonese public servants in particular, the impression that, in carrying out the duty of protecting the interests of public servants which has been laid upon me by the new Order in Council, I was showing racial discrimination and giving preferential treat- ment to Europeans. It is scarcely necessary for me to assure you that I intend to carry out my duties and exercise my powers in this regard with strict impartiality; that any grounds for imputing partiality in this respect either to myself or to Your Lordship should arise at the outset of the new Constitution I should regard as most unfortunate.