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Moreover, it should be recognised that salary scales have been fixed in the past as part of the general scheme of conditions of service, and that in the unification scheme the salary scale similarly forms part of a balanced arrangement into which there enter other important factors such as leave and pensions. In some respects the scheme is more favourable to officers than existing systems; in other respects, for instance in regard to pensions in Tropical Africa, it is less favourable. An attempt to deal with conditions of service piecemeal under the pressure of an insistent demand for economy may be expected to result in acceptance of every proposal which is to the disadvantage of the officer and the rejection of everything to his advantage; the consequent effect of this might well be to prejudice recruitment and to create a series of anomalies which would have to be dealt with at no distant date. Such a position would clearly be contrary to the interests of the Service and of the Governments by which it is employed.
On the other hand, it might be claimed that the economic situa- tion has already developed to such an extent that the following predic- tions may be expected to hold good over as long a period as it is necessary to foresee for the purpose of a present decision:-
(1) That the financial situation of the several dependencies will continue to be such as to necessitate the most rigorous economy in public expenditure.
(2) That the general position of world prices is likely to remain, if not at its present level, at any rate at a level well below that prevailing when the present scales were devised; from this it may be argued that the general level of salaries which will be required by the coming generation of officers will be substantially lower than that required by those recruited in the past who have entered into commitments on the basis of conditions as they existed before the onset of the depression.
(3) That, in the absence of a spectacular rise in trade and employ- ment generally, competition in the recruiting market for candidates of the type which the Colonial Administrative Service seeks to secure will not be so keen as to justify the offering of specially attractive terms. Moreover, recruitment for the Colonial Service is never likely to be on so large a scale as in the past, and the prestige of the Service as a career should have been greatly strengthened by the measures which have been taken to maintain recruitment at a time when so many other avenues of employment were closed.
The first of these assertions is not likely to be disputed; it may however be pointed out that economy does not necessarily imply a reduction of salaries but may be achieved in other ways. Further reference to this point will be made later. As regards the second, whether or not it represents the facts which time alone can show such enquiries as
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it has been possible to make at the main recruiting centres indicate that the point is not one which is at present seriously entering into the calculations of candidates themselves or their advisers; nor is any information available to show that other services, etc., which recruit in the same field, have been led by any such assumption to make any substantial or permanent reduction in the attractions which they offer. With reference to the third point it is true that the present limitation in the number of candidates taken and the partial elimination of competi- tion from other services have combined to place recruitment for the Colonial Administrative Service in a very satisfactory position. But having regard to the normal wastage it does not seem possible that recruiting can for very long continue on the present limited basis, even after allowance has been made for reductions in establishments. Also, there is clear evidence that in spite of the general depression, a certain demand continues to exist for young men of the best type from the Univer- sities, and that the most desirable candidates do not experience serious
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