OP Y.
Enclosure 1.
C O.
35339
RECEIVED OCT 07
307
Supreme Court House, Hongkong,
14th August, 1907.
Sir,
I have the honour to acknowledge Your Excellency's letter of 8th August with reference to my letter on the subject of the recently published correspondence as to salaries of the Civil Servants. I am most glad to have been able to meet Your Excellency's wishes with regard to laying my letter on the Table of Council; for although I felt the publication of the correspondence in the newspapers very keenly, I entirely concur with Your Excellency in thinking that it would be inadvisable to take a step which would revive discussion on the subject.
2.
I venture however to take this opportunity of referring to a passage in the Secretary of State's despatch of 24th August, 1906, where His Lordship states that he is of opinion that "the scale of pay of Government servants in Hong-kong compares favourably with that obtaining in most other parts of the Empire".
3.
I have obtained accurate particulars of the salary of the Judge of the Supreme Court at Shanghai, and I am desirous that they should be forwarded to the Secretary of State. I do not intend to base any suggestion or request upon them, but desire merely to lay them before the Secretary of State for his information.
4.
The salary of the Judge (formerly Chief Justice) is £1,800 a year, payable in England, and therefore liable to Income Tax.
His house allowance according to the regular scale should be £300; but in consequence of the high rents of houses
His Excellency
Sir Frederick Lugard, K.C.M.G.,
Governor.
&C.