Under Article 615 of the Pay Warrant, the Pay of all Gun Lascars is laid down in Rupees.
This works without a hitch as the body of Gun Lascars at Ceylon is concerned.
For that body, which passed some years ago from the payment of the Local Government into the payment of the Imperial Government, is raised in Ceylon, where a Rupee coinage is current, and is paid in such currency.
The men therefore receive the number of Rupees laid down in the Regulations, and no question of exchange arises.
But the Warrant does not work satisfactorily in its application to the body of Gun Lascars at Hong Kong, who have always been in Imperial payment, and are raised in various parts of the East.
For though the regulations lay down the pay of the men in Rupees, not Dollars; the latter being the coinage current at the station, it is not practicable to effect a settlement by simply paying to the men the number of Rupees to which they are entitled. Some means have to be adopted for exchanging the Rupees of the Regulations into the Dollars of the local currency.