363
ú4. 368648/21
It seemed desirable also to include the revised Public
Works Department salaries, which formed the subject of your, despatch No.252 of 23rd August, 1921, and concerning which
I am addressing you in a separate despatch. For these reasons, therefore, I thought it advisable not to take the first reading until the 27th October, and the second reading which would normally have taken place on November 10th was postponed until the 14th at the request of the Unofficial
Members.
4.
As it is impossible for this despatch to arrive in England earlier than the third week in December, 1 shall be glad to have your approval of the Estimates by telegraph.
Gou
62454/20
5.
The details of revenue and expenditure are dealt with fully in my address, and as in previous years, full explanatory notes have been inserted in the body of the Estimates.
6.
The rate of exchange for sterling paymente
e.d.
during 1922 was fired at 2/6 efter consultation with the Chief Manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, and 12 to £1 was adopted as the basis of exchange for the calculation of the dollar equivalent of sterling salaries payable locally. This latter rate, being considerably lower than the exchange of $10.70 to £1, adopted last year, is responsible for a large proportion of the increase in the personal emoluments of Departments like the Police and Public Works Departments, where the staff is mainly European.
7.
In paragraph 8 of my despatch No.364 of November 24th, 1920, 1 alluded to the scheme for revision of the Asiatic Clerical Salaries, and I have now to report that this scheme, full details of which can be obtained from a perusal of the Estimates, has been working since
The salaries of the different grades April of this year.
and