Closure 8.
Closure 10
492
the Police Force.
Two letters, one dated the 24th December and the other the 26th February, both forwarded at the request of Sir Francis Piggott form the last enclosures to this Despatch.
2.
It will be seen that except in the Post Office and in the Education Department, whose members have recently received increases in salary, the complaint of the insufficiency of emoluments in the existing circumstance of exchange is universal throughout the European Officers of the Hongkong Government.
3.
The first of the Memorials referred to above embodies some inaccuracies. Experience has not shown that the dollar has risen more than 6 pence in 18 months "nor that the utmost concession a few tradesmen have made is a reduction of 5 per centum in their prices". The Sterling equivalent of the dollar has not been below 1 shilling and 10 pence since the 11th October, 1904, and has never risen to 2 shillings and 4 pence. Several important firms have reduced their prices between 10 and 20 per centum since that date. The statement that "so far as European tradesmen are concerned the price of goods has for