TO HIS EXCELLENCY
SIR MATTHEW NATHAN, K.C.M.G.
12193
RECD 6 APR 07.
We, the undersigned Heads of Departments who are paid on a sterling basis, beg respectfully to submit to Your Excellency the following remarks on the subject of Exchange Compensation and the question of salaries generally, and to beg Your Excellency to forward the same to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies, with a request that he may be pleased to re-consider his decision to take no action in the matter.
2. In 1898, a meeting of Heads and Assistant Heads of Departments was held to make representations to the Secretary of State on the subject of salaries generally on account of the fall of Exchange. We have adopted a similar course on the present occasion in order to make representations on a subject which not only affects ourselves and our wives and families, but also the junior officials in our several Departments.
3. We deeply regret the Secretary of State's decision to take no action in the matter, as we anticipated that he would sympathise on a subject which affects nearly all the Civil Servants of the Colony, reducing their salaries by a considerable proportion while there is a probability of a still larger reduction in the future. We confidently believe that on considering the facts which we have the honour to lay before Your Excellency, the Secretary of State will recognise the justice of our appeal.
4. The first point on which we desire to lay stress is the following:-
The position of officers paid on a silver or on a sterling basis is identical so far as salaries are concerned: both suffer alike from the rise in silver. Both the silver and sterling systems of payment are based on a fictitious value of
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