76 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

The Civil Service must have highly educated men; if the oppor-
tunities for education are limited too much to a single class,
the fault is in the educational system itself. It may also be
doubted whether the dead languages are really as great a help
to understanding the world as history, economics, or the natural
sciences. The Civil Service Examinations assume that they are;
but this is chiefly because the educational system takes the same
view. One recent criticism of the Civil Service is that.in the
training of administrators for the Colonies it underrates the need
for special knowledge. If a man is to administer justice among
Africans, there is much, no doubt, that he can learn only from
experience; but there is also much stored-up knowledge of
native customs, the fruit of past experience, which can usefully
be studied.

CONDITIONS OF WORK.

The whole task of examination and appointment is, subject to
Acts of Parliament, in the hands of die Civil Service Commission
which was created by Order in Council in 1855. It is the Treasury,
however, which acts as the "employer" and makes regulations
for the general discipline of the Service. The Civil Servants are
allowed to form associations—chief of which is the Civil Service
Clerical Association—to negotiate with the Treasury about
wages and conditions. The C.S.C.A. used to be affiliated to
the Trades Union Congress, but the Trade Disputes Act of
1927 forbade such outside affiliations in future; this makes yep
another restriction on the political liberty of Civil Servants.
The salaries of many Civil Servants used to vary with the move*
meats of the cost of living. The plan led to many disputes,
particularly during the period of falling prices after 1929, and
has now been abandoned. With regard to hours, holidays, and
general conditions, the Civil Servant is very favourably placed.
There is, in the Whitley Councils established since the War,
a permanent machinery for negotiation about conditions of
service. If the Treasury and its employees cannot agree, they