Police Office
Hong Kong, 18th February 1909.
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of a message through the Captain Superintendent of Police, informing me that my salary as Assistant Land Officer is to commence at £420.
I find myself accordingly drawing some £40 less in my present or any other acting appointment than I should do if still a Passed Cadet with an increment and a house allowance. When I take up my permanent post I shall receive £420; whereas my predecessor, who is a cadet two years senior to me, drew £540 - a salary which I shall only obtain after nine years further service - and the cadets in other posts of the same rank, with the exception of Mr. Fletcher, are drawing from £540 to £630; and not only so, but Mr. Jacks, the other Assistant Land Officer resident in Hong Kong, who is not a cadet officer and has only three and a half years' service in the Colony, whereas I have seven, is in receipt of £460.
When Mr. Fletcher and I were offered Cadetships in the Hong Kong service in 1901, we were in possession of a circular issued by the Colonial Office, promising a rise in the pay of cadets, and adding that other posts also were to be placed on a sterling basis. The inference conveyed by this and borne out by what we learned from the Colonial Office was that other salaries also were to be raised. But on our arrival in Hong Kong, it turned out that our salaries were to be lower than the pre-existing salaries, whereas these were now to be raised on account of the increased cost of living. It was in fact subsequent to our appointment to the Hong Kong Service that the new scheme was introduced relegating us to a scale of pay inferior to that given to the rest of the service.