(To THE EDITOR or THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—I am a petty
official (in Scotland)—that is, I am head of a municipal department, and should like to be allowed to remark briefly on two letters that have appeared under the above head- ing. I do so, and wish to refrain from comment on your own article, because these letters are an admirable illustration of the generalities, used without knowledge, which do so much mischief in private as well as public life. " A Privy Councillor," in your issue of the 7th inst., says : " These same men [the petty officials] are always trying to find more work so as to get one or more other small officials under them to increase their own importance and their own pay." How does " A Privy Councilor " know this P Can he produce actual cases where such a foolish proceeding halts ever taken place? If " A Privy Councillor " were in the witness- box in a Court of Law, and subjected to strict cross-examination on this statement, I am quite sure, from the most intimate know- ledge, that he would break down ignominiously. What he is safe in saying is that the foregoing is his personal belief at to what takes place, and the value of that will depend on his opportunities
of definite, intimate knowledge. Then in your last issue " Field Officer " says: " The official becomes gradually obsessed with his surroundings and the importance of paper, and forgets the end his Department exists to achieve." Such a generality would be wicked, if it were not utterly silly. Now, the same remarks apply to this as to the statement of " A Privy Coun- cillor," with this addition, however, that I believe the magnificent organization of the British Army, admittedly the finest ever shown on the field, is due mainly just to the careful and accurate work of petty officials, such as your correspondents so sweepingly, and, I believe, so ignorantly, condemn. In spite of the brilliant sarcasm of Ian Hay (to whom thanks for his delightful and helpful books), and in spite of such statements, gratuitously put about, as the above, the petty official is evidently doing his work efficiently, if quietly and without thanks. My son, who is in the Service in the East, and had occasion (he tells me in his last letter) to motor about six miles along the front, speaks in terms of the highest admiration of the organization of all departments of the Service. " The pride of it all thrilled me as a Britisher," are his words, and that is the work of petty officials. One word more. My own experience of petty officials in civil life may be summed up in this way : (1) They are very stiff to move from their own way, for the reason that, with the very best knowledge, they have chosen that way as the most efficient, and suggestions to alter usually come from persons without adequate knowledge.
(2) Their chief aim is to make their Department efficient, with- out, it may be, considering sufficiently the claims of any other Department; it is always, however, efficiency that is in view.
(3) Never, in all my experience, have I come across a petty official who was troubling his head either with increasing " his own importance," or was so "obsessed with his surroundings and the importance of paper," that he forgot " the end his Department exists to achieve." I am quite sure your correspondents never encountered such men either, when they come to think of it.—I
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