The Expert in the Civil Service

Abstract

MEMBERS of the professional, scientific, and technical classes in the Civil Service will welcome the leading article on “The Expert in the Civil Service” in the issue of NATURE of Aug. 27. The proposal for the appointment of a Royal Commission to examine and report on the present position of the professional worker in State service has the full support of the Institution of Professional Civil Servants, a body representative of the above classes. Indeed, since its inception in 1919, the Institution has been striving to obtain an official inquiry into the conditions governing the employment of its members in the Civil Service. The Institution is convinced that the improvement of the status of professional workers in the Service—the necessary precedent to fuller economic recognition—and freer access to administrative posts, will only be obtained by such an inquiry as is advocated. An impartial, inquiry into the position of the professional and scientific classes in State employment is absolutely essential if the efficiency and well-being of the Service under modern conditions are to be maintained. The Council of the Institution reiterated last year its policy of pressing for a public inquiry, and welcomes the influential support of NATURE in the steps that will be necessary to bring to pass this long-desired event, which is of such importance in the interests of both the State and the professional worker.