COLONIAL CONTROL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 171, 3 May 1930, Page 5

COLONIAL CONTROL.

SINGLE SERVICE URCED.

REPORT BY A COAIAIITTEE

(United Press Association—Copyright.)

LONDON, AI ay I

The creation of a single Colonial service is recommended in the report ot the committee which has been considering appointments in the Colonial Office and Colonial service.

The committee was apjiointed last year by Air L. C. Al. S. Amery (Secretary of State for Dominion and Colonial Affairs in the Conservative Government), with Sir Warren Fisher as Chairman. For some time it has been considered that certain changes were necessary owing to the growth of the British dependencies toward the new status of the Dominions as established by the last Imperial Conference. It was found that under the growing system of independence there w ere now many anomalies. The Colonial Office itself, for example, has become a dual department—that is, the Colonial Office proper and the the Dominions Office.

The report deals with territories handled by the Colonial Office. Those comprise 50 different- territories, cording more than 2,000,000 square miles with a total population of 50,000,000 people of varied nationalities and religious beliefs. The expenditure of the Colonial Government alone has arisen from £19,000,000 in 1909 to £08,000,000 in 1929. The governmental staff has increased from. 93.208 to 220,770. . , , , Recommending tin* creation* oi «i single Colonial Service the committee urges that special services sum as agriculture, medicine, and education should he organised within this single service. With regard to appointments H ow made through the machinery ot the private secretary to the Recietnry of State, it is recommended that the final collection of candidates should be made by a Colonial Service Appointments Board, which should be set up. consisting of a chairman and two members nominated by the Civil ...enico Commission. With reference to elections of Governors the committee recommends that prior consideration should be given to the suitability oofficers holding high offices in the Colonial services. The committee produces figuies which serve to show that there is no real e-round for the suggestions that the older universities have anything like a monopoly of colonial appointments. >