The Personal Realtions of Officials with the Public
| Date | 01 January 1931 |
| Author | G. H. Stuart‐Bunning |
| Published date | 01 January 1931 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1931.tb02006.x |
Pub
lic
A
dm
in
is
t
rat
ion
belong to another. We represent the unity and collective control
of
the State.
I
give the whole of my time to the work, and am as entitled
to my pay and pension and other rights as any other worker.
If
my
services are intangible or misunderstood they are nevertheless distinct
and important.
”
That
is
the kind
of
teaching which has to find
a
place in the schools
and in public life, and the official, like everyone who is attacked,
can find help only in learning to speak for himself. The public which
is
too selfish to construct his defence must be button-holed.
The Personal Relations
of
Officials
with
the
Public
By
G.
H.
STUART-BUNNWG,
O.B.E.,
J.P.
HE
British civil servant has a good opinion of himself and no
T
wonder for, with the possible exception
of
the London police-
man, he
is
the most bepraised person in the world. Cabinet Ministers
write forewords when he publishes
a
book,
in
which they extol
him.
They go to dinners and recount the obligation they and the country
owe
to the Civil Service, and if the recipient
of
all
this
laudation
sometimes wishes it was translated into terms of salary it
is
only
a
pasing thought, to be instantly dismissed
as
unworthy. Nor is this
all. The Customs man is scarcely
a
popular person
but
if,
at
Dover,
the officer desires to open just the one bag of which the key is mislaid
and the traveller expresses himself in the
usual
manner, someone is
sure to reprove him with tales of the barbarities of Customs officers in
New York or Riga or some other far-off place.
The greatest tribute was paid by an eminent judge, who recently
wrote
a
whole book to show that the civil servant was slowly but
surely getting everything within his grasp.
So
alarmed was his
Lordship that he called upon his countrymen to
get
up and do some-
thing about
it,
but his only concrete suggestion was that the work
should be taken from the Civil Service and handed over to members
of
his own trade union. Unfortunately,
as
they are always expen-
sive, often dilatory and not always efficient, only
a
few people like
Mr. Harold Cox got at all excited, and the civil servant
will
apparently
go
on
doing
all
the things
his
Lordship says he
should
not. Indeed, such
is
the hold he has that when the Institute of Public
Administration gave
a
dinner to Colonial Premiers and delegates to
the Indian Conference the Premiers and the British Ministers could
only talk
of
the perfection of the service, and
it
was left to the
two
36
To continue reading
Request your trial