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and Federated Malay States.
The Hongkong .Service being a much smaller one
than the other two the result so far has been, and must continue to be
in a more or less marked degree, that many Officers are transferred.to
this Colony while few are transferred from here to the Straits Settle-
.ments or Federated. Malay States. And as Officers are not transferred
till they have had some considerable Service the Cadets bere see men
Senior to them appointed.over their heads to this Colony.
For instance Mr. L. A. M. Johnston comes into
this Service next after Mr. Thomson, which is a serious matter for Mr.
Brewin, Mr. Badeley and all the Cadets junior to them, and a bad thing
for the Colony for Cadets will in future choose the larger Service of
the Straits Settlements to which the Hongkong Service is to be tacked
on rather than the smaller Bongkong Service,
As long as the disproportion between the Services
remains, as it must, men in the smaller Service must lose more than
they gain under the amalgamation.
7.
There is a remedy for this and for the stagna-
tion in the Services of the Straits Settlements and of Ceylon which is
causing dissatisfaction (as I learned on recent visits).in both
Colonies. The remedy is to draw upon the Cadet Service of the Three
Colonies and the Federated Malay States a Service which outside
England stands second only to the Covenanted Civil Service of India -
for Officers to fill appointments in other Colonies.
Many lucrative appointments, serving as stepping
stones too to promotion in the highest ranks of the Colonial Civil
Service, are filled every day almost by appointments of persons who
have had no previous connection with the Colonial Service.
Such a system or rather such want of system -
may produce brilliant results in individual cases as it undoubtedly
has done, but taking the Colonial Service of the Empire as a whole
its disadvantages must outweigh any advantage that attaches to it.
No
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