520
THE PUBLIC SERVICE
For present purposes, the public service in overseas territories must be regarded as divided into two groups: the large number of persons locally engaged who provide virtually the whole staff in junior grades; and those, recruited in the territory, the United Kingdom or elsewhere, for service in the higher ranks.58 For very good reasons, the full United Kingdom organisation extends only to the latter. Its origin is to be found in one of the primary duties of the Secretary of State--to ensure, so far as possible, that dependent territories within his jurisdiction are provided with the officers they need for efficient government. Recruitment 54 was therefore undertaken by a special Division (several departments) in the Colonial Office and suitable applicants were selected by the Secretary of State to fill vacancies notified to him; but they received their appointments from the government of the country in which they were to be employed. Nevertheless, the responsibility for these officers which the Secretary of State assumed at the outset is maintained throughout their careers, in the interest of both the officers themselves and the territories within the scope of his authority.
The Unified Services
the
An important development took place in 1930, when the profes- sional, technical and higher administrative branches of the Colonial Service were formed into distinct Unified Services." The largest was the Colonial Administrative Service; those with which we are more directly concerned were the Colonial Legal Service, Colonial Police Service, and the Colonial Prisons Service. There were sixteen others.50 Membership of these services, governed by regula- tions, carried with it eligibility for promotion, or simple transfer, to any of the territories for which the Colonial Service was established. Governments, particularly those with small staffs, had, through the Secretary of State, a very much wider field of selection for filling their vacancies than would have been the case if they had been able to look only to their own resources; and though in the early years of service overseas transfers from one territory to another were not common, officers who had attained some seniority had far better opportunities for advancement. Transfer without promotion was
53 The numbers recruited from local populations vary enormously, from none in a
very primitive country to the very great majority in, e.g., Mauritius.
54 Now, very different in kind and quantity, in the hands of the Ministry of
Overseas Development.
55 In 1939, there were approximately 320 members of the Colonial Legal Service; Judges, Law Officers, Magistrates, Crown Counsel, Crown Solicitors, Legal Draftsmen, Court Registrars, Land Officers, Registrars-General, Administrators- General, Public Trustees, Official Receivers, etc. (Colonial No. 172). The number increased after the war and in the 1950s there were some 130 Judges alone. 36 Colonial No. 306, Sched.
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