"On this point too great consideration can not be bestowed, as it relates to the rate of exchange and affects the men this year to a considerable extent, as it will be induced on unintentional misunderstanding to join the Police in this Colony at a lesser rate of wages they would earn in Great Britain.
The men are allowed to remit to the extent of half their pay at the Government rate of exchange. If this exemption of discontent would be obviated, this practice prevails with reference to the men at present in the Forces since the enlistment of the last detachment.
5. So far as I can learn, the pay of a Constable in the Metropolitan Police Force, corresponding to a Constable here, is about 28s. a week or £81.19s. a year - this is equivalent to $4487 at today's rate of exchange (5/14). It is $32 a year more than the pay of a Constable in this Police Force. It is, I consider, highly undesirable that men will join as recruits in a Police Force in Hong Kong again, as referred to in GR1178/1922/32(III), and it is on this basis that the documents in this office show that the request for the enlistment of men, serving in a trying climate, ten thousand miles from their homes for so long, is asking for an increase of pay as 25.7.0. a year. The decrease in the purchasing power of a dollar,
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