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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Referance :-

PELLIC.O.882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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seen from the foregoing remarks that I should not regard any informality in the voting, even if it could be held that such informality had occurred (as to which I see no evidenco) need necessarily affect the question whether in fact public opinion was in general favourable to the scheme.

I have, &c.,

C. 73230/2/30 [No. 8].

No. 70.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 17th February, 1930.)

(Confidential.)

MY LORD,

PASSFIELD.

Queen's House, Colombo, 28th January, 1930. WITH reference to Your Lordship's Confidential telegram of the 31st December, 1929,* I have the honour to inform Your Lordship that I have appointed a Commission consisting of the Honourable Mr. Justice Lyall Grant (Chairman), Mr. W. E. Wait, and Mr. L. J. B. Turner, for the delimitation of Electoral Divisions under the New Constitution.

2. The terms of reference issued to the Commission are as follows:-

"To visit the several provinces of the Island and, after hearing such evidence as they may deem necessary, to make recommendations for the division of the Island into fifty electoral districts for the selection of members of the State Council proposed in the Report of the Special Commission on the Constitution of Ceylon, the following conditions being observed in the framing of such recommendations-- 1. Each electoral district should contain a total population of between approxi-

mately 100,000 and 125,000 persons.

2. In exceptional circumstances, where the inclusion within one electoral district of a population within the above limits would result in a constituency of too large an area or of inconvenient form, boundaries may be so defined as to include a smaller number, provided that without the sanction of the Governor in Executive Council specially sought and obtained, the number included shall in any such case not be less than 75,000.

3. Whenever the above conditions permit, the boundaries of electoral districts should coincide with those of revenue districts or of Chief Headren's divisions or of areas under the jurisdiction of local authorities."

C. 73230/2/30 [No. 9].

No. 71.

I have, &c.,

H. J. STANLEY,

Governor.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 22nd April. 1936.)

[Answered by No. 72.]

Queen's House, Colombo, 31st March, 1930.

(No. 261.) MY LORD,

I HAVE the honour to invite Your Lordship's attention to paragraph 7 on page 18 of the report of the Special Commission on the Constitution, and to the paragraph on pages 60 and 61 of the same report entitled "Division of Responsibility between Ministers and Heads of Departments.'

2. These two paragraphs appear to contemplate that, not only in their dealings with Heads of Departments, but also in their dealings with the State Council, and, through the Council, with the Governor, Executive Committees and their Chairmen will be guided by certain rules and regulations which will be embodied in what 'are now known as the "General Orders of the Government of Ceylon.

* No. 64.

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3. These General Orders are issued for the guidance of public officers, and their carrying out can be enforced by the ordinary disciplinary measures to which those officers are subject. The question which authority will in the future have the power to issue, amend, and interpret such orders is one with which I do not intend to deal in this despatch. But neither the Chairmen nor the members of the Executive Com- mittees will be subject to the disciplinary measures to which officers to whom the General Orders now apply are subject. The issue to them of instructions in the form of "General Orders is, therefore, impracticable.

The

But even if it were practicable it would not, in my opinion, be desirable matters dealt with in the two paragraphs of the Donoughmore Report to which I have referred are so diverse that they cannot, I think, be suitably covered by one set of instructions, whatever the form of those instructions or the sanctions attached to them. 4. Considerable revision of, and possibly some additions to, both the General and Financial Orders of the Government will be necessary, but I propose that such revisions and additions should cover only the functions of Heads of Departments in relation both to the Departments under them and to the Executive Committees charged with the supervision of those Departments.

5. It remains to be considered by what instructions the Executive Committees will be guided in the conduct of their business, and in their relations with the State Council and the Heads of Departments It appears to me that these instructions may Instructions of the first class would deal conveniently be divided into three classes

..

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with important questions which will be essential features of the new constitution, and should therefore be laid down in the Order in Council. Foremost among these will be the power of the Executive Committee to exercise general supervision over the departments entrusted to it, the delegation of powers to the Heads of Departments, and the necessity for approval by the whole Council, in Executive Session, of the decisions of individual committees. The latter necessity will be subject to the qualifi- cation that in matters of minor importance the Executive Committee will issue instruc- tions in anticipation of the formal approval of the State Council and the Governor. In paragraph 7 on page 48 of their report the Special Commissioners suggest that the distinction between matters of major and minor importance should be laid down in General Orders would be quite "General Orders." I have shown above that unsuitable as the medium for the issue of instructions of this nature, and further, after careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that it would be impossible at this stage to attempt to devise a formula for the distinction between matters of major" and matters of "minor" importance, and that the development of a sound practice in this regard must be left to the good sense of the Council itself. It may be that experience will indicate a possibility, which I do not at present envisage, of defining some general lines of distinction. If this should prove to be the case, the State Council will, I consider, be the proper authority to issue instructions in this regard, and it would serve no useful purpose to attempt to fetter their discretion in this particular.

"

I suggest, therefore, that the Order in Council should itself indicate the powers of Executive Committees, and should also indicate the manner in which those powers should be exercised in so far as it is necessary or possible to do so in order to ensure that the spirit of the new constitution is properly observed.

6. A second class of instructions should prescribe the formal procedure to be followed by the Executive Committees in the conduct of their own business, in the laying of business before the State Council, and in the issue of orders to fleads of Departments. These instructions can most conveniently be issued in the shape of Standing Orders of the Council, and I propose to ask the Committee which is now preparing draft Standing Orders for the Council as a whole to proceed with the draft- ing of Standing Orders for Executive Committees. These will of course be subject to amendment by the State Council itself in the same way as all other Standing Orders of the Council.

7. The third class of instructions presents the greatest difficulty, but they are of great importance, since upon the proper framing and due observance of them the efficient working of the new constitution must largely depend. The Special Com- General Orders" should be issued defining missioners appear to have intended that

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the authority of Executive Committees over Departments and limiting the powers of interference by the Committees in matters of routine administration. I have, I hope, General made it clear that the issue of instructions of this nature in the form of " Orders" is impracticable. Instructions of this kind can obviously be of a general nature only, and must depend for their effective working upon the proper observance of their spirit rather than of their letter. The initiation and maintenance of proper