CO129-376 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1911 [3-4] — Page 445

432.

refuse Officers the leave which under Colonial Regulations

they had the right to anticipate, and this not because the

circumstances were abnormal, but because the normal strength

of the Administrative Service was insufficient to give effect

to Colonial Regulations. In other cases the difficulty has

been met by temporarily bringing in men from outside. In the

Attorney-General's Office, Mr. H. E. Pollock. K.C., Mr. M. W.

Slade, K.C., Sir Henry Berkeley, K.C., and Mr. C. G. Alabas-

-ter have all acted within a period of 4 or 5 years. I need

hardly point out how very prejudicial it is in principle for

a series of Barristers in private practice in the Colony to

undertake the work of Attorney-General while still practising

and to have access to Government Confidential papers. The

work of Attorney-General is in fact so heavy in this Colony

that it is more than enough to occupy the entire energies of

a man who is already familiar with the records and these

appointments of practising Barristers have been attended by

the utmost inconvenience. Hitherto the Crown Solicitor being

a Solicitor in private practice has supplied his own substitu-

-te when on leave. In other and non-legal posts it has only

been possible to grant leave long over-due by duplication of

Offices for long periods or by the complete suspension of

an office to the manifest disadvantage of the Public Service.

$