Enclosure.
COPY.
Honourable Colonial Secretary,
REC C.O. 6491 27 FEB 279
I attach a table showing (1) our present rates, (2) rates which we recommended and (3) rates which the Secretary of State now sanctions, you will see that for P.C.'8, and Lance Sergeants (all but 10 cents a month) the Secretary of State has granted what we asked. The increase, deducting the contribution to the Widows and Orphans Fund, for Sergeants and 3rd class Inspectors is so small as to be hardly appreciable, while for 2nd and 1st class Inspectors and for Chief Inspectors, it is little more than nominal.
I don't know what the ration allowances at Singapore amount to. From the Singapore Blue Book 1898, it looks as if all 2nd class Inspectors got $5 a month and all 3rd class Inspectors, Sergeants, and Constables (European) $10 a month, but probably that has all been revised at their recent increase of salaries. I attach a list showing which of our 2nd and 3rd class Inspectors and Sergeants are married, and what allowances they draw for medals and languages. It will be seen that of 8 married officers four draw no allowances at all, while the other four draw an average of $5 a month each. If all the allowances drawn by 2nd and 3rd class Inspectors and Sergeants were divided up among the married ones, it would average $6.25 per man, which is probably less than the ration allowance drawn by the married officers at Singapore. It must be borne in mind that medals are only granted for very special services or very long and faithful service, and that the Chinese language is so difficult that very few men ever learn enough of it to earn an allowance.
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