Jov 697 posts of £540 rising to £600 per annum compared with six posts with salaries of £600 rising to £720 and one with a salary of £540 rising to £600 per annum in Hongkong. In this connection I may refer Your Lordship to the protest made by Sir Henry Blake in his Confidential Despatch of the 25th October, 1901, against the adoption in this Colony of a scale of salaries lower than that obtaining in the Straits Settlements, a measure which would, he predicted, be ultimately attended with disastrous results to the efficiency of the Hongkong Civil Service.
7. The Sterling Salaries paid in Hongkong by comparison with salaries paid in England appear at first sight quite sufficiently large, but without making further reference to the great cost of living in the East and to the expense of passages to and from England, besides other inconveniences, I would remind Your Lordship that the grant of double Exchange Compensation at the close of 1901 was made after full and prolonged consideration had established the conclusion that the former single compensation salaries were not a sufficient remuneration.
8. I would accordingly recommend that