The Bonus for the Civil Service.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 16048, 2 November 1917, Page 6

The Bonus for the Civil Service.

Tho proceedings in Parliament on T\ odnesday, we fancy, will cause some surprise to the average citizen. A couple of weeks ago the Government, at a secret meeting of members of tho House, placed before members certain facta relating to the finances of tho country, and as a result a great majority of tho House decided that it Wa3 impossible to add to the sum which the Government had set aside for the payment of allowances to the dependants of tho Second XHvision soldiers who aro about to bo called up for military service. The financial position was dcscribod as difficult and critical, and the expenditure was declared to have reached the "breaking "point." Everybody concluded that this condition of things naturally made impossible the repetition of the "war " bonus" to the Public Servants. A few days ago the Parliamentary representatives of our own and. other leading newspapers wore led to understand, on tho best authority, that the Government had realised that the logic of tho facts, not to mention the dictates of propriety, forbade a general distribution to tho Public Servants of another £400,000. Yesterday, however, the Supplementary Estimates came before tho House, and they rovealcd that neither logic nor propriety had been allowed to have any effect. Tho bonus has been authorised, and protests can j now avail nothing. The fact that the Civil Servants are to benefit at tho expense of tho 6oldiers' dependants i makes tho granting of the bonus—ex- | cept in tho special case of the married | men in the Railway Department—a

[ monstrous impropriety, but even if that ! special consideration were ignored, it would still be quite wrong to relievo the pressure of prices on the Civil Servants by increasing the pressure on the gc-neral public, who feel the effects of the war as much as the Civil Servants do, and who havo an equal right to a grant from the public funds. But these are facts upon which we need not now enlarge. They are patent to all, and we havo no doubt wo shall hear more about them in the future. What we would specially note to-day is the complaisant attitude of members of Parliament towards the Government's proposal. The blameworthiness of some members might be found greater than that of others by an analysis of their attitudes on other proposals respecting finance, but we need not look further than the fact that they all acquiesced in as indefensible a proposal as ever came before Parliament. What was tho reason for this unanimous defiance of propriety? It can only bo that members are afraid of the Civil Service vote. They have watched closely, if the silly taxpayer has not, the great growth of tho army of Public Servants, the closer organisation of that army, and the more and more openly aggressive policy that has been pursued by the leaders of the various Public Service Associations. They know that when election time comes round the ordinary citizen, apart from the fact that tho matter does not diroctly affect him, has fifty other things to think of in deciding how he shall vote, while tho average Public Servant, directly and substantially affected, -will subordinate everything to his own special interests. To the politician who does not allow good principles to govern his conduct, this condition of things appears as an overwhelming reason why he should support the payment of any bonus to the Public Servants that the Government may propose. The sum total of the bonuses voted in 1916 and 1917 to the Public Servants is about £800,000, tuid if it is repeated next year, it will be nearly a million and a quarter sterling. This substantial sum will have been paid by the general public, and it may be regarded as the first fruits of the new " big union" movement in the service. We are confident that in. a very few years, unless the public takes its own steps to deal with the politicians who sacrifice the public interest for tho sake of the favour of' the large and wellorganised army of Public Servants, the Civil Service organisations will rule this country. Already the Civil Service is force tho Government and Parliament to turn their hacks on honest principles, and this success cannot but stimulate its leaders to further aggres- j sion.