403
HONG KONG JONVERSION OF STERLING SALARIES.
Before the 1919 Salaries Commission all
sterling salaries were fixed at a 2s/- dollar for
the conversion of sterling into dollars, but this simple arrangement proved untenable in 1920 in
how was comparison with the provisions of the Exchange Compensation Scheme of 80 per cent at 1s/9d and 20 per
cent at the average current rate of exchange, owing to
the rapid fall in the value of the dollar which took
place shortly after the revised salaries came into
force. A sliding scale therefore was introduced
under which an officer was paid at the rate of 10
dollars to each £. when the dollar was at, or over,
4s/4d, and 12 dollars to the £. when the dollar was
at 2s/6d or under. There were other rates at inter-
mediate values of the dollar.
After this sliding scale was brought into
operation, the cost of local living continued to
increase and in July, 1928, the Government made a
further allowance to officers of 2 per cent of the
dollar equivalent of their sterling salaries if
married, and of 1 per cent if unmarried for every ld that
the value of the dollar that was below 2s/6d up
to a maximum of 18 per cent, or 9 per cent, as the
case might be.
The recent Salaries Commission appointed
in 1928 recommended new scales of sterling salaries
representing in general an increase of 15 per cent,
and proposed that they should be converted into
dollars at the average opening public demand rate
of