The fourth Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire
into the Civil Service two years ago was issued on Tuesday. The proposals, which amount to nearly a hundred, are prefaced with a handsome tribute to the competence, zeal, and integrity of the Civil Service as formed under the exist- ing system, and relate only to the general Civil Service, including eighty departments and sixty thousand officials, the Post Office and the English Public Record Office being reserved for special Committees, while the Diplomatic and Consular Services and the legal department will be the subject of further inquiries. The Commissioners recommend that the First Division Clerks should be renamed " Administrative Class," the method of recruitment to remain as at present ; and that the Second Division, Intermediate Class, Assistant Clerks, and Boy Clerks should be reclassified in two divisions as a Junior and Senior Clerical Class. They insist on the need of a closer co-ordination between the educational system of the country and the Civil Service Examinations. They also recommend, with certain reserva- tions and dissentients, the free transfer of Civil servants from one department to another, thus increasing the chances of promotion; while in regard to the employment of women the Majority Report (signed by sixteen out of the nineteen Commissioners) lays down the principle that their services should be secured whenever those services will beat pro- mote the public interest. It also recommends the compulsory retirement of women of most grades on marriage—a hard saying on a difficult subject.
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