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CHAPTER I
PROCEDURE AND MEETINGS
PRELIMINARY STEPS
1. At our preliminary meeting held on 24th March we decided to issue invitations to Heads of Government Departments and to recognised Civil Service Associations to submit representations regarding salaries and all forms of emoluments and allowances, terms of pension, leave, passages and medical treatment, and any other relevant matters connected with conditions in the public service. Associations were asked to nominate persons authorised to represent them, if they wished to submit oral as well as written evidence. Heads of Departments were in addition requested to submit proposals for such regrading of classes of employees within their departments as they thought fit. Invitations were sent by press notice to the public and by letter to the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, the Hong Kong Chinese Chamber of Commerce, and to a number of the leading commercial and industrial concerns to submit representations and to give evidence on any matters which they might consider to be relevant to our inquiry. 12th April was fixed as the closing date by which written representations were to be received.
2. As a result of these invitations written representations were received from all Heads of Departments and from the individuals, concerns and organisa- tions listed in Appendix 1.
3. We are particularly grateful to the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce for making available to us the results of a survey on the current wage rates of clerical workers and to the various firms which supplied us with valuable information about the emoluments they were themselves paying to their staffs and the methods they were using to compensate their employees for the present high cost of living.
MEETINGS
4. We held in all 55 meetings at 27 of which oral evidence was taken. The witnesses at these meetings included Heads of Departments, officers in charge of certain technical sub-departments, a number of individual officers and the representatives of various Civil Service Associations. In addition we invited
and heard evidence on several occasions from Professor R. Robertson of the Hong Kong University and others. A full list of persons who gave oral evidence is attached at Appendix II.
5. The information supplied to us was of great value and assistance and we wish to acknowledge the courtesy with which all our requests were met both within and outside the Government service.
DETAILS OF PROCEDURE
6. At our preliminary meeting on 24th March the Chairman outlined the problems facing the Commission and we decided after considering our terms of reference that in view of the need for early detailed recommendations on salaries, emoluments and conditions of service affecting directly the financial circumstances of officers we should first concentrate on these matters, leaving other questions within our terms of reference for consideration at a later date.
7. All written representations received by the Secretaries were circulated to members of the Commission. Preliminary discussions were held on each representation received and points which would require clarification or elabora- tion when the writers attended before the Commission in person were noted. When oral evidence was heard, verbatim records were kept by the Commission's stenographers and copies of these records were circulated to members and where necessary to the persons who gave evidence for checking. The Commission was practically in continuous session and the hearing of the oral evidence which commenced on 12th May was almost completed by 23rd June.
8. We decided that we should exclude from our consideration any questions of departmental reorganisation, any proposals for the creation of new posts and any personal grievances. As a general rule we decided to ignore obsolescent scales and to base our proposals for revision upon the scales introduced in 1938. We focussed our attention upon what we considered such posts merited at the present time in the way of emoluments. In doing so we have in certain instances reached the conclusion that it is necessary for us to recommend certain measures of reorganisation of the public service in order to implement the policy laid down in White Paper Colonial No. 197. In the case of certain posts and departments created since the re-occupation of the Colony we have made no specific recommendations for the revision of salaries,