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7
می
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to £1,200 and have good prospects of reaching £1,500.
Moreover it must be observed that despite the admitted
severity of the study required to bring an officer success-
fully through the qualifying examination, he is not in
fact of any service to this Goverment for the further
period of two years during which he is studying Chinese
and is during that time a non-productive charge on the
funds of the Colony. Even after passing in Chinese, the
average Cadet Officer requires a further period of at least six months before he can be of any positive
administrative value. A medical officer, a schoolmaster
or an engineer, on the other hand is competent to give service from the day of his appointment.
4.
The position of the Cadet Officer immediately
on passing his final examination in Chinese is correctly stated in paragraph (3) of the letter of 8th October, 1926, which forms Enclosure No. 1 to the petition. This anomaly
is one which should be corrected whenever the salary scales
are next under revision. It is hardly of sufficient
importance to justify a special revision at the present time.
It is moreover the case that there has been
5.
a distinct rise in the cost of living since the last general
revision of salaries and that this has recently been
aggravated by the fall in the sterling value of the Dollar, (see page 6 of my despatch No. 449 of 29th October, 1926)
also that its effects have been mitigated by certain
concessions which benefit senior far more than junior
officers. But the main grounds for the concessions referred
to are, first, that such senior officers are normally
married men and have families and secondly that European
lies,and
children