ļ
"
.(a) i onaciorki
Enclosure 1 (b).
303
V.0.
298
40735
Goverment Civil Hospital,
Rece
Hongkong, 19th.December, 1911.
sir,
RECE 23 DEC 2)
We the Wardmasters of the Government Medical
Department have the honour to request that you will kindly
support and forward this humble petition of ours to His Excel-
lency the Governor hoping it may receive his kind attention.
We beg respectfully to bring to your notice that
we are the poorest paid European Goverment servants in the
Colony. We start at £110 rising by 2 triennial increments of
£20 each bring our maximum salary up to only £150 a year, and ⚫
out of that we are required to pay 4% to the Widows and Orphans
Pension Fund although we are not allowed to get married as our
agreement is "bachelors quarters", and at the completion of
six years we have no further promotion to look forward to.
We also respectfully beg to bring to your notice
that our work is very lonely and at times very trying. Take the
wardmaster who has to do duty in the Lunatic Asylums, and Infectious Diseases Hospitals, he is not allowed visitors, he
has no one to speak to all day, and only a person who has done
duty in those Hospitals can realise the lonely life he has to
live. Again the cost of living is high as compared with the
Police and warders, because he has to mess by himself and keep
a room boy by himself whereas the warders and Police mess in
messes of 20 or 25 can live far cheaper and only employ one room
boy between them.
The Police start at £100 a year and can rise to
the rank of Chief Inspector drawing a salary of about £300 a
year, they are not asked to contribute to the Widows and Orphans
Fund until they obtain the rank of Crown Sergeant, although we
know of 8 or 9 Lance Sergeants who are married and occupying
free Goverment Quarters and those men do not pay into the
Widows and Orphans Pansion Fund.
In years past wardmasters were transferred to