apr. 22.
Tus title has come to be up-plied to the mental attitude affected by permanent officials and the civil servants in the employ of governments. loo often we find these men hedged inland bound round by regulations, sometimes of their own making. They are distinguished by a conservative outlook and a Jack of initiative.
Any person or piece of business that comes before them in their official capacity is treated frigidly. Any enthusiasm or zeal is met by such an iey reception that it seeks at once to hide its diminished head. The official mind cannot be roused sufficiently even to pour scorn on what it regards as beneath notice. Ice is its only weapon and its only defence, and so effectually does it hand out the chunks that it is screened from the vulgar gaze of the outsider just as the ice-berg floating down in the warmer latitudes screens itself by fogs and mist from prying eyes.
Now what are the causes of this particular type of mentality? In the case of the higher branches of the service it may be due partly to the education and general upbringing of the members thereof. The brilliant Oxford and Cambridge men who in Britain so often hold these posts bring into official life some of that feeling almost of contempt towards the "'vulgar crowd"' which the atmosphere of those ancient places of learning tends: to implant in the breasts of those who live in their walls. Perhaps, however, the main reason. is the security of tenure which a grateful country guarantees to those who pass the intellectual tests admitting them into the civil service. More secure in their posts than the Ministers who ave supposed tule the departurents, they can by various methods make ineffective legislation with which they do not agree. Another reason also lies in the fact that, in most branches of the servi promotion goes by sonority. Th everyone ually rises in position as hi Years increase, whether his a grows or not. Enterprise and initiative are, therefore, not of great importance. In fact they are often regarded as dangerous Possessions, as something to be discouraged and eventually stamped out. The eradicating of the official mind is a matter of adit. ficulty. A labour or socialistic government, in spite of protestations of its Céemocratic ideals, cannot overcome the influence of officialism. In fact it is in such an environment that this mental fungus thrives, and, as all the world knows, it reaches its highest pinnacle of power under Soviet administration.
There is no doubt whatever that the public at large in most countries is utterly weary of bureaucratic rule and it has become more and more evident that the only solution of the difficulty is to confine the function of government within certain very narrow and clearly defined limits. On the other hand, some governments backed by officialdom seem determined to get control of almost every side of the ational life and interests. This movement must be combated. We have only to cast our' minds back for a few years and think of the swarms of civil ser-variis engaged in Britain during
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.