The report of the Committee which was appointed last March
to inquire into the pay of State servants was sum- marized in the papers of Friday, September 7th. It covers the Navy, the Army, the Air Force and the non-industrial staffs of the Civil Service. Comparisons are made between the pay in all these services and the pay of men doing more or less similar work in private employment. The total cost of the Civil Service now exceeds the pre-War cost by a higher percentage than appears in the Navy and Army ; nevertheless, the conclusion of the Com- mittee is that the pay in the Navy and Army is in general now rather too high, and that the pay in the Civil Service cannot in general be reduced compatibly with the public interest. They point out that the real way to reduce the total cost of the Civil Service is to reduce the amount of work which is now unnecessarily placed in the hands of State Departments.
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