§ SIR GILBERT PARKER (Gravesend)I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies how many retrenched Civil servants, railway employees, and members of the South African Constabulary have been found appointments by the Colonial Office in this country and in our over-sea Dominions, respectively.
§ COLONEL SEELYGovernment appointments in the Colonies and Protectorates, or in this country, have been offered to twenty-six retrenched Civil servants, three railway employees, and twenty-eight members of the South African Constabulary. In eleven cases the appointments were declined. Of the forty-six appointments made, forty-three were to posts in the Colonies, three to posts in this country.
§ SIR GILBERT PARKERI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether this Government will take into consideration a grant of money to the Civil servants retrenched from the Transvaal and Orange River Colony administrations, in view of the inadequate compensation given them and the responsibility which rests on this country in relation to men who were led to believe that their positions would be permanent and pensionable.
§ COLONEL SEELYNo, Sir. His Majesty's Government, while feeling every sympathy with Civil servants who have lost their positions owing to a policy of retrenchment forced upon the Colonial Governments by the necessity of readjusting the Civil Service to normal conditions, cannot undertake to ask Parliament to make money grants to supplement the compensation given them. With regard to the hon. Member's description of the compensation as inadequate, I may state that the compensation granted by the present Transvaal Government has not been less liberal than that granted by the Crown Colony Administration.
§ SIR GILBERT PARKERasked the hon. and gallant Gentleman whether it was not the fact that, under the Crown Colony Administration, a great many of the Civil servants who were retrenched understood that their occupation was merely temporary, while those who had been discharged during the last two years were chiefly those whose employment was considered to be permanent.
§ COLONEL SEELYI cannot accept that statement. If the hon. Gentleman will refer to the debate in which my right hon. friend the President of the Board of Trade made a statement on the subject, he will see that 187 persons were 1398 retrenched under the same conditions of tenure and under the same conditions in every respect, and, so far as I am aware, the hon. Gentleman asked no questions on the subject then.
§ SIR GILBERT PARKERasked whether the Government considered the compensation as set forth in the Blue-book, which, in a great many cases, was scarcely sufficient to bring the retrenched Civil servants back to the country from which they came, was adequate compensation, and had the Government finally decided that they would do nothing whatever to supplement the compensation granted by the Transvaal?
§ COLONEL SEELYI fear I can add nothing to the Answer I have given. As I have said, the terms are not less liberal than those which were granted under the preceding Crown Colony Administration, which was under our control, and the scheme of compensation is practically the same as that adopted in Cape Colony, where very large retrenchments are in course of being made. I do not think we could take the step of asking for a grant.