As First Civil Service Commissioner, Sir Percival Waterfield has unique
qualifications for appraising the candidates for the Civil Service, and what he has just been saying about them is, on the face of it, disquieting. But his verdict that "40 per cent. of those who wanted to get into the administrative service and 5o per cent, of applicants for the foreign service scored marks for personality and intelligence which represented complete failure" must be received with some reservations. Everything depends on the methods by which personality and intelligence are assessed—and the assessment is by no means easy. The Civil Service method is to invite candidates already successful in the written and oral examinations to a long week-end at a country house, during which they are observed closely by psychologists, engaged in conversation on a variety of topics suddenly raised and given credit for deportment and behaviour generally. There is obviously something in this method, but there may not be as much as the psychologists and the Civil Service Com- missioners claim. It is another case of the inability of the ordinary layman to check the expert. Psychology is a valuable science, but it need not be swallowed hook, line and sinker.
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