2
43
Should the
Military Contribution and Public Works Extraordinary) 54.28 per
cent., or $13,809,382, is for personal emolument.
average exchange rate of the dollar be 1/- or under (the basis
on which these figures are calculated) official salaries, as
the Hon. Mr. C. Gordon Mackie pointed out during the second
reading of the Budget, will involve an additional tax on the
resources of the Colony of approximately one million dollars.
The community considers that, in a existing
economic conditions, the ability of the Colony to bear fresh
taxation has reached its limits. That view was expressed both
by the Senior Unofficial Member, Sir Shou Sou-chow, and also
by his colleague Mr. R.H. Kotewell, who added that the Chinese
regarded recent increases in taxation with concern and
apprehension.
Moreover, at a time when the National Government, with
the full force of public opinion behind it, is curtailing all
unnecessary expenditure, the Colony's community is extremely
critical of what it regards as ill-timed generosity on the
part of the Hongkong Government towards its employees.
It
points out that, on the recommendations of the Salaries Com-
mission, official salaries were recently increased by 15 per
cent.; that the cost of living in Hongkong has not gone up to
the same extent as the exchange has fallen, and that payment of
salaries at current rates will result in Hongkong Government
Servants finding themselves better off than they have ever been
before, just when, as Mr. C. Gordon Mackie stated, "Government
Servants at Home, in Oeylon, the Straits and other places have
all had their salaries cut".
Employees of leading firms in Hongkong have been
called upon to accept drastic sacrifices. Prior to the second
reading of the Budget, H.E. the Governor was supplied con-
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