The Qualifications, Recruitment and Training of Public Servants
| Date | 01 December 1923 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1923.tb02151.x |
| Published date | 01 December 1923 |
| Author | Stanley Leathes |
Training
of
Public
Servants
The
and
Qualifications, Recruitment
Training
of
Public Servants
By
SIR
STANLEY LEATHES,
K.C.B.
[Being
n
paper discussed
at
the Summer Conference
of
fhe Institide
of
Public
Administration,
31st
July,
19231
HIS
is not exactly the subject which
I
offered to the Institute
I
T
agreed to make
a
few observations on the recruitment of public
servants. My occupation during the last twenty years has kept recruit-
ment constantly in my mind
;
but the scope of my work has not given
me very extensive opportunity of witnessing and testing various methods
of training public servants. Indeed,
I
was
never trained myself as
a
public servant, except for
a
brief period
of
six
weeks.
I
dropped my
pilot as soon as
I
was allowed
to
do
so,
and learnt my job by doing
it.
My training from that point has been continued on the Montessori system.
I
have played with my bricks on the floor until
I
believe that
I
partly
understand their nature and properties.
As
for the qualifications
necessary and desirable for a civil servant, my notions about them can
only be derived from the study of my very numerous acquaintance;
not at all from the study of myself.
I
am
only accurate because
I
am
well aware of my
own
propensity to make mistakes
;
I
am abominably
untidy and very absent-minded. Were
I
advising
a
young servant
of
the public
I
should no doubt quote to him the time-honoured maxim
noit
ntulta
scd
nzitltuna,
and bid him learn
all
about something rather than
a little about many things. But my
own
practice throughout life has
been exactly the opposite, and by
a
strange stroke of chance every sub-
ject which
I
have ever studied or
so
much
as
dallied with
is
useful in my
daily task. In my university days
I
was
often reproached by academic
friends for my eccentric and repellent interest in the
art
and practice
of examination
;
I
would not recommend any civil servant to take any
more interest in examinations than
is
necessary
to
pass them. But
this shameful infatuation,
by
an unforeseen exception,
is
not a drawback,
it
is an asset, to the arch-examiner. My
own
training has been all that
it should not be
;
it happens to suit not only my temperament but my
office; but
I
am a warning, by no means
an
example; and
I
should
never preach my heresies.
However,
if
I
am
fit
to speak about recruitment,
I
must have some
views and opinions about the qualifications and even the training
of
civil servants. Recruitment, if it is to be rational, must be
so
directed
as to enlist desirable recruits; again, it
is
useless to take
in
the best
343
~~
The
Jotlrnal
of
Ptlblic
Administration
possible material if the training subsequently imposed upon them fails
to develop those gifts which the public service requires. Therefore-
if
it be understood that there are many who are much better fitted than
I-by experience either in the ranks or in the higher command or in
both-to lay down principles as to qualifications and training-I need
not quarrel with the extension which has been given to my subject.
Different ages, different
forms of government, different national temperaments, demand different
types of public servant. An autocracy demands faithful but otherwise
unscrupulous agents, who can be taken up and rejected as the irresponsible
power thinks best in its own interests.
If
a
monarchy
is
on good terns
with its
own
nobility, it will find its agents among the cadets and depend-
ants of noble houses.
A
royal dynasty, that has adopted the policy
of
depressing all independent power, will seek its instruments among men
of ability who have no dangerous family connections. Thus did Louis
the Eleventh of France and our own great Harry the Eighth. A
powerful oligarchy, such
as
ruled England in the eighteenth century,
will keep the patronage in its own hands and use it
as
a means to extend
the influence and power of the dominant party in the State. In Britain
has been developed beyond any other country the habit, the instinct,
the tradition, the love of self-government. Our problem in the highly
complex system of modem life-which demands more regulation than
is
needed in a simpler state, in a more primitive community-is to frame
and direct machinery of control for free men jealous of their liberty,
and reconcile tolerable order with indispensable liberty. Different
schools of thought will demand more regulation, or more liberty
;
but
it
may be conjectured that in this people,
so
long
as
it preserves its
inherited characteristics, any imprudent attempt to enforce
a
desirable
order
at
the expense of customary freedom will provoke a quick
reaction.
Different social systems will use different methods to procure and
train the instruments of public policy. We do not know much about
the Civil Service of Athens, but we know that
at
any rate the clerical staff
were slaves, and we may guess
that
in that country of government by
amateurs and public assemblies the intelligence and experience of the
slaves often kept their masters from fatal error. Under the rule of
Rome, in that highly complex State and community, the Civil Service
was mainly conducted by slaves and freedmen. By the fortune of
war
young captives from good families often came into the market. Those
who were born to be slaves were by no means always slaves by nature.
The slave-merchants chose the most promising from whatever source
and educated them for a variety of professions. The finished articles,
sold to the imperial household or
the
secretarial staff
of
some great
man, were employed on book-keeping
and
letter-writing, and
if
found
THE
TASK
OF
THE
BRITISH
CIVIL
SERVICE.
344
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