621
Enclosure No.1 to Despatch No.160 of the 39th.;
April, 1959,
Hongkong, 23rd. April, 1903.
The Honourable
Sir,
A. W. Thomson,
Colonial Treasurer.
C. O.
21802
RECP
Rec'd 3 JJ 02
**
He respectfully beg to be allowed to address you on the subject of our personal emoluments for the posts we now hold, viz:- as second and assistant clerks in the Treasury respectively.
The salary attached to each of these posts as provided in the Estimates, is $1,800 to $3,100 by $50 biennially and at this computation we shall expect to draw the maximum salary ten years hence. He now therefore venture to solicit your favourable recommendations to the government to grant us the privilege of drawing the maximum salary as from the present time, on the following grounds:-
We have held our posts for the past ten and eight years respectively. We have to provide for the present, and future needs of our families and the education of our children. We are now drawing the minimum salary and with the enhanced cost of every commodity, the heavy price we have to pay for house rents, this barely suffices for even the necessaries of life, not to mention the laying-by of anything for rainy days, sickness and other unforeseen contingencies, and consequently it is only by ameliorating our present pecuniary circumstances that we shall be enable to live in a way compatible with our position, and moreover that we may now enjoy peace of mind free from pecuniary worries that is most essential for the purpose and zealous performance of our duties in the service of the Government.
We most respectfully beg to submit, that our present emoluments are inadequate to the posts we hold, and without desiring to make any invidious comparisons we solicit your attention to the fact that, there are officers now in the service of very much less seniority than ourselves and holding positions which have not attached to them those responsibilities that are imposed on us, and yet are drawing better salaries than we do.
In conclusion permit us to mention that some officers in the service have been allowed to draw the maximum salaries of their posts and we trust that, under the above circumstances and taking