THE CIVIL SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 132, 1 December 1936, Page 8

THE CIVIL SERVICE

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—ln my letter of November 25 I showed that successive English Royal Commissions (the latest in 1931), supported by an American Commission that reported in 1935, have declared that entries to the administrative division of the Civil Service should be decided by a post-university examination testing general intelligence and not specialised knowledge. I don't'think that Mr. F. B. Stephens's recollections of remarks made to him in conversation by Dr. Finer and Dr. White will convince your readers that these Commissions were mistaken. On the contrary, your, readers are much more likely to agree with your own editorial conclusion, that, to a mind trained in a general university course at a university of the best kind, "specialisation, wherever and whenever demanded, would be easier than it is for the specialist to acquire general culture and the broad outlook." May I make one last remark? The Secretary of State for the Colonies has thought it worth while to set up m New Zealand in elaborate organisation for the recruitment of New Zealand university graduates. I am myself engaged in recruiting them. These men are apparently not good enough for the New Zealand Civil Service! May I venture to hope that the "Evening Post" will do something to awaken the authorities to the absurdity of this situation?—l am, etc.,

HAROLD MILLER.