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Further, account must be taken of the situation with regard to the retiring age and the pension fraction. The raising of the former to 55 in Dependencies where it has previously been 50 may justify considera- tion of lengthening the time-scale so as to reduce the period for which the unpromoted officer would serve at the maximum. The reduction of the pension fraction for Tropical Africa to 1/600th would raise the question whether the maximum pensionable emoluments of officers on the time-scale should be increased in order to mitigate the effect upon the actual pension to be drawn. Both these considerations strengthen the case for maintaining the maximum salary of the time-scale at £1,000, as recomm- ended by the Warren Fisher Committee and in the unification scheme, even if this should render necessary some compensating reduction in the number of existing super-scale posts. Again, it is necessary to repeat that the salary scale is only part of a general scheme of conditions of service, and that the adoption of the standard scale proposed for the unified service cannot be recommended unless accompanied by adoption not only of the pension system, but of the other standard terms embodied in the uni- fication scheme.
It is
Finally, while it is for the Governor in each Dependency to form his opinion and to advise the Secretary of State as to the necessities of the local financial situation and as to the reasonable requirements of officers, having regard to the cost of living and other local circumstances, it is the Secretary of State who, in addition, has to judge the general recruiting situation and to assume responsibility for maintaining the quality of the Colonial Administrative Service and other branches. his duty to resist any tendency which might result in lowering the standard of the Service. The Colonies cannot afford to offer terms which fall below the minimum necessary to secure the best material available. The corollary of financial stringency is not that standards of quality should be reduced, but that the structure of the Government services should be overhauled so as to secure the best possible return for the money expended. Every effort should be made to develop the employment of the inhabitants of the territory concerned in duties up to the limit of their capacity. In the Administrative as well as in the professional and technical services, expensive and highly qualified officers from outside should not be employed to do work for which local recruitment can provide the necessary personnel. The possibility of delegating to locally-recruited staff any duties on which Administrative officers are at present employed should be carefully and continuously studied, with the object of effecting reductions of ex- penditure rather by a progressive decrease in the numbers of personnel recruited from overseas than by cheapening the quality of that personnel. Such a policy is consistent with, and indeed is an inevitable corollary of, the political progress of the Dependencies. But it should be care- fully planned and regulated so as to take effect with the least possible disturbance of the even flow of recruitment; for it is a steady and con- sistent demand, rather than mere number,, which is of primary importance in maintaining the prestige of the Colonial Service as a career, and encouraging a sufficient supply of young men of the best type to prepare themselves with a view to entering it.
January, 1933.
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