The Morning Post published last week the text of a
circular issued to its members by the Civil Service Confederation, in which Civil servants were urged to " take no voluntary action likely to assist in the campaign against wages," to " carry out only such duties as fall reasonably within their conditions of service," and to " refrain from joining any volunteer force or special emergency organization." They were told that they had " a common interest with all workers in maintaining a decent standard of life," and that as the miners' wages had been "guaranteed " until August 31st—a manifest misstatement, We may remark—by an Act which had been repealed, " it cannot be assumed that Civil Service salaries are safe." In reply to a question in the House on Monday, Mr. Hilton Young said that one of the two signatories of this circular was a Civil servant, but that no disciplinary action would be taken. The Prime Minister, he said, regretted the publication of the circular, which was " very injudicious," inasmuch as Civil servants were the servants of the nation and ought not to engage as a body in political controversy. To the ordinary citizen such a circular must appear to be worse than " injudicious." If the enormous departmental staffs whose salaries are an ever. increasing burden on the taxpayer are infected to any serious extent by such unpatriotio sentiments as the circular displays, the outlook is grave indeed.
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