CO885-8 — Page 198

428

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

اسلنا

Reference :-

C.O. 885

8

WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- PYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

LIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

4

2

corresponding to the two classes of work, as described in the Report of the Ridley Commission in 1888 :--

(1.) The

High Staff Officers" (Under Sec- retaries) and the Higher or First Division Clerks (Class I.) deal with the "consulta- tive and deliberative work" (as it is called by the Commission) which "involves duties more nearly akin to management." (2.) The Second Division Clerke, with certain supplementary classes of clerks and type- writers, deal with the "purely clerical work," which "does not differ materially from that done by clerks in large com- mercial establishments"; the "ordinary duties of supervision" in connexion with the clerical work being discharged by Lower Staff Officers selected as a general rule from the Second Division Clerks. should, however, be noted that certain "Lower Staff posts which are filled by Officers" involve duties much more re- sponsible and onerous than the "ordinary

duties of supervision.”

It

For the performance of the "consultative and deliberative work" the permanent staff of the Colonial Office, like that of the other great Offices of State, consists of an Under-Secretary, Assistant Under-Secretaries, and Departments or Divisions manned by Principal Clerks, First-Class Clerks (Beniors), and Second-Class Clarks (Juniors). Betting aside for the moment the General Depart- ment, the Chief Clerk's Department, and the Legal Department, which consist partly of Second Division Ulerks, the work is distributed geographically: nominally, among six Departments, but really, among seven, as one of the six (the South African) is in every respect a double department. Taking the trumber as seven, each Department consists of a Principal Clerk, a Senior Clerk, and two Juniors, the number of Departments being determined by the amount of work which s'Principal Clerk can be reasonably expected to master to ss to havO A gutural knowledge of all the work of his Depart mans, beyond matters of rule and routine, ș.a., 6f all this work on which the Secretary of State may retjedre information. It is difficult for anyone who not served in more than one of the great Departments of State to matitate a comparison

theth, but it seen not unreasonable to that the proportion of the work on which Political Hand may require to be informed is in the Colonial Office than in others-- to the great variety of subjects requiring to the number of (sometimes lengthy) demisining vóltmifiðés ensłomares, such of debates in Colonial

ures, of

the subject of notice in Parliament. In connexion with the interest in colonial affairs now taken by Parliament and this country generally, it may ba note that one of the duties of the Head of a Department is to compile, for consideration, papers for presentation to Parliament. In the Colonial Office this is rarely a mere mechanical collection of returns the nature of which is clearly defined, but in almost every case involves judgment and die. cretion. Of course the final editing of a Blue Book falls upon the Secretary of State, advised and assisted by the Under-Secretaries and Assistant Under-Secretaries, but the responsibility of failing to submit for consideration any paper which it would be desirable to include in a Blue Book rests with the Head of the geographical Department concerned.

Thus the mere number of registered papers is no satisfactory criterion of the work of a Department, but it is the only one available, and it has been held that 5,000 registered papers represents the work which can be satisfactorily dealt with in one Department. Of late years this has been, in the care of almost every Department, considerably exceeded, but owing to the close connection of the Colonies in each of the present Departmenta, it is difficult to see how this can be avoided. Indeed, in the case of the two South African and the two West African Departments, serious inconsistencies would arise were it not for the co-ordinating control_of the Assistant Under-Secretary. But before dis- cussing the duties of the last-named Officer it will be well to complete the consideration of the duties of a geographical Department.

As before stated, each Department consists of

a Principal Clerk, a Senior, and two Juniors. These Officers between them write minutes and memoranda, make searches, draft letters and despatches relating to the Colonies comprised in the Department, In case of simple drafts they have the assistance of Second Division Clerks attached to the Registry and Despatch Departments. In regard to this last print the following suggestion is made: The theory is that in such cases Miuptes are so full or so clear and simple that the drafting is almost mechanical. In practice, the increased pressure of work has tended to minutes-even in simple caged:-- being brief and sketchy, and it is contended that, to write a draft, on imperfect minutes or instructioną,, which can be passed for signaturo without altera tion requires qualifications which are not to be found in every clerk, and that the alteration of draft is often more troublesome than the rewriting of it. It is suggested that a certain number of Second Division Clerks should be selected, after probation of their aptitude for such work, that they should be called "Draftamen," and be given addi tional pay as Temporary Staff Offieur" (a term well known to the Treaury), and that dofing should not be done by paber Second Division, Clerks of less experience, expant during leave time and as a matter of probating. In this way X might be posible in future to reduce the number of Junior Clarke,

placing them by 1a Draftsmen.".

"1

201