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Principles regulating the Conduct of Civil Servants. The attention of all members of the Imperial Civil Service was, at the request of the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, drawn to the following extract from the report of the Board of Inquiry appointed by the Prime Minister of England to investigate certain statements affecting Civil servants which had been made in the course of a Court action. In previous reports the Commissioners have directed attention to the fact that the Public Service of the Dominion has fully maintained the confidence of the public, and has continued to render faithful and adequate service. The principles enunciated in this extract are what may be termed an ideal in this respect. Extract from Report of Board of Inquiry. His Majesty's Civil Service, unlike other great professions, is not and cannot in the nature of things be an autonomous profession. In common with the Boyal Navy, the Army, and the Eoyal Air Force, it must always be subject to the rules and regulations laid down for its guidance by His Majesty's Government. This written code is, in the case of the Civil Service, to be found not only in the statutes, but also in Orders in Council, Treasury circulars, and other directions which may from time to time be promulgated ; but over and above these the Civil Service, like every other profession, has its unwritten code of ethics and conduct, for which the most effective sanction lies in the public opinion of the Service itself, and it is upon the maintenance of a sound and healthy public opinion within the Service that its value and efficiency chiefly depend. The first duty of a Civil servant is to give his undivided allegiance to the State at all times and on all occasions when the State has a claim upon his services. With his private activities the State is in general not concerned, so long as his conduct therein is not such as to bring discredit upon the Service of which he is a member. But to say that he is not to subordinate his duty to his private interests, nor to make use of his official position to further those interests, is to say 110 more than that he must behave with common honesty. The Service exacts from itself a higher standard, because it recognizes that the State is entitled to demand that its servants shall not only be honest in fact, but beyond the reach of suspicion of dishonesty. It was laid down by one of His Majesty's Judges in a case some few years ago that it was not merely of some importance, but of fundamental importance, that iu a Court of law justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done ; which we take to mean that public confidence in the administration of justice would be shaken if the least suspicion, however ill-founded, were allowed to arise that the course of legal proceedings could in any way be influenced by improper motives. We apply without hesitation an analogous rule to other branches of the Public Service. A Civil servant is not to subordinate his duty to his private interests ; but neither is he to put himself in a position where his duty and his interests conflict. He is not to make use of his official position to further those interests ; but neither is he so to order his private affairs as to allow the suspicion to arise that a trust has been abused or a confidence betrayed. These obligations are, we do not doubt, universally recognized throughout the whole of the Service ; if it were otherwise, its public credit would be diminished and its usefulness to the State impaired. It follows that there are spheres of activity legitimately open to the ordinary citizens in which the Civil servant can play no part, or only a limited part. He is not to indulge in political or party controversy, lest by so doing he should appear 110 longer the disinterested adviser of Ministers or able impartially to execute their policy. He is bound to maintain a proper reticence in discussing public affairs, and more particularly those with which his own Department is concerned. And, lastly, his position clearly imposes upon him restrictions in matters of commerce and business from which the ordinary citizen is free. Between the regular investment or management of a private fortune on the one hand, and speculative transactions in stocks, exchange, or commodities on the other, there are obviously numerous gradations, and it may often be difficult to draw the precise line of demarcation between what is lawful and what is prohibited ; it may even be inadvisable to make the attempt, because many things, though lawful, may yet be inexpedient. But some transactions fall indubitably on one side of the line rather than upon the other. It might well be desirable for a Civil servant in all circumstances to avoid transactions wholly speculative in character ; but where he is employed in any Department to which, whether rightly or wrongly, the public attribute the power of obtaining special information, such as the future course of political or financial events likely to affect the rise and fall of markets, then we assert unhesitatingly that participation in such transactions is not only undesirable or inexpedient, but wrong. The knowledge that Civil servants so employed are engaged in them could not fail to shock public confidence at home, and, especially if matters of foreign exchange are involved, to produce a deplorable effect upon opinion abroad. We content ourselves with laying down these general principles, which we do not seek to elaborate into any detailed code, if only for the reason that their application must necessarily vary according to the position, the Department, and the work of the Civil servant concerned. Practical rules for the guidance of social conduct depend also as much upon the instinct and perception of the individual, as upon cast-iron formulas, and. the surest guide will, we hope, always be found in the nice and jealous honour of Civil servants themselves. The public expects from them a standard of integrity and conduct not only inflexible but fastidious, and has not been disappointed in the past. We are confident that we are expressing the view of the Service when we say that the public have a right to expect that standard, and that it is the duty of the Service to see that the expectation is fulfilled.

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