HL Deb 30 July 1912 vol 12 cc767-72

THE EARL OF CAMPERDOWN rose to ask whether Mr. Thomas Wilson, lately appointed a Sub-Commissioner by the Board of Agriculture for Scotland, was a Liberal election agent for Inverness-shire up to his previous appointment as factor and manager for the Congested Districts Board; and also, why he has been treated exceptionally in regard to salary, which commences at £700 per annum, the maximum salary of the scale.

The noble Earl said: My Lords, a Return was recently laid on the Table which gives the appointments made by the Board of Agriculture for Scotland since they entered upon their office on April 1 last, and I wish to call your Lordships' attention to the appointment of Mr. Thomas Wilson as a Sub-Commissioner for Small Holdings. The salary of Sub-Commissioners is on a scale from £550 to £700 per annum, but Mr. Wilson is entered on the scale with the maximum salary of £700. I would remind your Lordships that the duties which Sub-Commissioners have to discharge are very delicate duties indeed. The Sub-Commissioners have the right of putting forward schemes for taking land compulsorily, for proposing what land is to be taken, and so on, and to submit those schemes to the Commissioners. These Sub-Commissioners are appointed by the Board of Agriculture, and will, I presume, have to report to them and advise them on all dealings with land, and they will have to negotiate with owners and occupiers of land and have other delicate duties of that kind to perform.

What are the qualifications of Mr. Wilson for a post of this sort? I believe I am right in saying that within a short period he was an active political agent in Inverness-shire. Indeed, at the last General Election, if my memory serves me rightly, he travelled about Scotland making speeches on the land question and on other questions of that kind. He is well known and has been so for years as a person who takes a very strong part on the Liberal, or I should say the Radical, side of the question. If your Lordships look at the last column of the Return you will see that Mr. Wilson is represented as having been formerly employed in an established capacity as factor and manager under the Congested Districts Board at a salary of £300 a year. That appointment must have been of very short duration. The dates are not given, but I know it must have been for a very short time. When the Congested Districts Board left office and the new Board of Agriculture came in their place Mr. Wilson was appointed as an established officer and entered upon the appointment at £700 a year, the maximum salary of the scale. Why he has thus been treated exceptionally I know not. If your Lordships will look at the Return you will see that the other Sub-Commissioner, a Mr. Angus Macintosh, is employed on the same scale of salary and he starts at £550. What is the reason for the difference made between these two men? Mr. Angus Macintosh was senior to Mr. Wilson in established employment under the Board. It seems to me that these are facts which require explanation, and therefore I beg to ask the Question standing in my name.

LORD WILLINGDON

My Lords, I do not know anything personally about the individual to whom the noble Earl makes reference, but I propose to answer the two specific points that he raises in his Question. The noble Earl asks, first of all, whether Mr. Thomas Wilson was a Liberal election agent for Inverness-shire up to his previous appointment as factor and manager for the Congested Districts Board. That is perfectly true. Up to his appointment in that capacity he was a Liberal agent and I am given to understand a very efficient and able Liberal agent, but I ant sure the noble Earl will not suggest that the fact of his having been a political agent, whether Liberal or Conservative, would militate against his being efficient in any other service if he was an able and industrious man.

In the second part of his Question the noble Earl asks why Mr. Wilson has been treated exceptionally in regard to salary. The reason I am given to understand is this. It is obvious that when a Department is in its inception it is important to get the best men at the heads of the various parts of the Department. It was considered very desirable to get Mr. Thomas Wilson to be the head of this particular branch of his Department because he had an intimate knowledge of the particular locality for which he was appointed. He represented that he was already making an income of between £700 and £800 a year and that he could not give this up for a reduced salary, and it was considered so advisable to appoint him—this is what I am given to understand—and he was considered such an efficient man that he was appointed at the maximum salary. Added to this he is a man of fifty-six years of age, and, of course, that made a considerable difference as he would not have many years to run under the particular Department. Those, I am given to understand, are the reasons for the appointment of. Mr. Wilson. He is a most efficient and able man, and will, I think, perform his duties thoroughly satisfactorily.

LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH

I do not suppose it is fair for me to cross-examine the noble Lord about Mr. Wilson. It was after the time when I was responsible for matters at the Scottish Office that Mr. Wilson was appointed factor and manager for the Congested Districts Board; at that time he had not even been made Liberal agent for Inverness-shire. But my knowledge of Mr. Wilson's antecedents goes back a number of years, and while he may have been efficient as factor and manager for the Congested Districts Board I should he rather surprised to find that he had in any way distinguished himself for judicial administration, which I understand is part of the work of a Sub-Commissioner. As factor and manager for the Congested Districts Board he was probably under the control of people who would bring to bear a judicial mind upon the transactions, but if the noble Lord cares to inquire as to what Mr. Wilson's antecedents were in earlier years he will hardly think that he is likely to be a very judicial person when questions arise between landlord and tenant.

THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE

I think we are excusable if we keep a somewhat vigilant eye upon appointments of this kind. The question is not really a small one. It is on record that the present Administration since they came into power had, up to July of last year, made no fewer than 4,200 appointments in the Public Service—appointments necessitated by the legislation which has taken place since 1906. It follows that the average pace at which these appointments are made is something in the neighbourhood of 1,000 a year. Therefore the matter is, as I said just now, not one of small importance. It is also on record—all these things are disclosed in a Parliamentary Return—that two-thirds of these appointments have been filled without any examination.

Two results must inevitably follow from this practice. I do not blame His Majesty's Government so much with regard to them, because I believe they are inevitable results. The first result is that you are bound to appoint a great number of persons of very mediocre attainments, and for this excellent reason—first, that the number of first-rate men available is not sufficient, and, in the second place, that the emoluments which you offer are not sufficient to attract first-rate men to the Service. The second result which I believe to be inevitable is that in selecting these persons the Government of the day turn principally to their own friends. I do not make any charge that persons unfit are deliberately selected for these appointments, but it is obvious that the heads of Departments come more into contact with people of their own way of thinking, and therefore the tendency does arise to appoint partisans of your own, and, in making these selec- tions, to reward political services by means of these appointments. The way in which it is usually put is that the Government desire to put into these places persons who are sympathetic with the legislation to which effect has to be given.

Now look at the case of this Mr. Wilson, What do we know about him? He has been a Radical political agent, and the noble Lord who replied for the Scottish Office told us that in that capacity he was efficient and able. I dare say he was and that not a word is to be said against his efficiency or his ability in that post; but, as Lord Balfour truly said a moment ago, you do not look to that kind of man, however efficient and able he is, for those judicial qualities which are indispensable in the case of an appointment of this kind. We all know that under the Act of fist year these Commissioners and Sub-Commissioners have to decide most difficult questions involving extensive private rights, and it is most important that their antecedents should be of a kind which would inspire the parties who are affected by their decisions with confidence in the judicial qualities of the officials themselves. I can scarcely believe that it was impossible to find for this appointment no one except a gentleman with such a tempestuous record as that which Mr. Wilson appears to enjoy. I am glad my noble friend has drawn attention to this matter, and I do earnestly trust that this short conversation may have the effect of inducing His Majesty's Government to press upon the Departments subordinate to them the necessity of exercising the greatest possible care in filling up these appointments, which, though perhaps in a somewhat minor degree, nevertheless involve very important quasi-judicial duties.

THE EARL OF CAMPERDOWN

I desire, with your Lordships' permission, to say one or two words with regard to the answer which was given to me by the noble Lord who represents the Scottish Office. That answer seemed to me to make it more clear than ever that Mr. Wilson ought not to have been appointed to the office of Sub-Commissioner. The noble Lord said that Mr. Wilson has an intimate knowledge of this district. Yes, so he has; and so have the district and the Scottish Office a very intimate knowledge of Mr. Wilson. Lord Balfour, even so far back as the time when he (Lord Balfour) was Secretary for Scotland, knows Mr. Wilson, and knows that his qualities are not those of a Sub-Commissioner. The Act says that all these appointments are to be made with the approval of the Secretary for Scotland. I presume that approval was given in this instance. Yet if the Secretary for Scotland had only chosen to make inquiries in his own Department I am quite convinced that he would have been told that Mr. Wilson was not a fit person to place in this position. One reason given for starting Mr. Wilson at the maximum salary of £700 is that he is fifty-six years of age and is not likely to go on for very long or reach the maximum of his pension. Are these appointments to be filled up in order to enable people to reach the maximum of their pension, and is the salary to be allotted in regard to age rather than the efficiency of the person appointed? It seems to me that the fact that Mr. Wilson is not likely to go on long was an additional reason for not appointing him, and certainly not one for giving him a higher salary.

Last year the then Secretary for Scotland, Lord Pentland, assured your Lordships over and over again in this House that one reason why we should have no hesitation in entrusting these great powers to the bodies created under the Scottish Small Holdings Act was that the appointments would be made with the greatest impartiality and the greatest care. This, however, is the first appointment the Board of Agriculture made on entering upon its duties! Any one who knows much about Scotland and the history of Scotland during the last two or three years will have heard of Mr. Wilson by name, and I venture to say the Board has commenced its duties by making a very bad and unfit appointment. Do your Lordships imagine that owners and occupiers of land in Inverness-shire and all that part of the country, whose land, I suppose, Mr. Wilson will inspect and report upon to the Board, will have any confidence in the impartiality and in the judicial qualities of a man who up till lately was a political agent in the county? It stands to reason that this appointment was not a fit appointment; and I can only say that if the actions of the Board are looked upon in the immediate future with a considerable amount of suspicion, it will arise from their own fault and from their own fault alone.

House adjourned at twenty-five minutes past Five o'clock, till To-morrow, Twelve o'clock.