12.
4.
There are various possible ways of giving
effect to the suggestion that officers with 30 years service should qualify for pension equal to two-thirds of retiring salary. After considering the various possibilities, I am of opinion that the best method will be to provide that, if
an officer has attained 50 years of age and has at least 25 years tropical service, he should be allowed to count each month of service, after fulfilling both these conditions, as
double for pension purposes. I enclose draft amendments to
the Pension Minute, the first of which is designed to give
effect to this suggestion. It will be seen that the amendment is limited to officers ordinarily recruited in the United Kingdom, the reason for this being that officers serving in their native Colony may reasonably be expected to serve until the age of 60 and that they already enjoy the 5 years climatic
bonus which applies to all officers.
5.
There is another consideration, already briefly
referred to, which has a bearing on the adequacy of pensions as compared with salaries, namely that apart from the revision of salaries, which automatically affects pensions, various other concessions have been granted in order to compensate officers for the increased cost of living, such, for example, as the grant of rent allowance throughout the service and in the case of officers not domiciled in Asia the provision of free passages to and from leave, and the grant of exchange compensation on sterling salaries. None of these concessions are reflected in the calculation of pensions, though in effect they may, in varying degrees, be considered as equivalent to increases of salary. I consider that it would be reasonable that there should be some addition to
salary