ABSTRACT
Despite the existence of o cial regulations and information on appointments the introduction of formal examinations for the Colonial Service was slow and partial compared with the Indian Civil Service and the Home Service. Partly due to this the system of recruitment into the Colonial Service was subject to much complaint throughout this period.6 Ernest Eiloart’s Th e Land of Death provides an early example of such criticism. In this pamphlet published in 1884 addressed to Members of Parliament, the solicitor Eiloart delivered a vehement and highly personalized attack on the government of the Gold Coast and particularly the system employed in the appointments of o cers. According to Eiloart administrative o cers recruited in the colony itself were ‘for the most part divided between the Governor’s relations and his sycophants’ while in the appointments made by the Colonial O ce for Gold Coast service the
‘old patronage system still ourishes in all its iniquity’. Forms of patronage were, indeed, ingrained at the Colonial O ce with all forms and les concerning appointments tellingly marked with the headline ‘patronage’ until reforms where introduced in the late 1920s.7
