Enclasme No 2
462
Secretariat for Chinese Affairs.
Hong Kong. 24th January, 1931.
sir,
With reference to the petition now in course
of preparation and intended to be submitted by the Civil
Servants of Hong Kong for the consideration of His
Excellency the Governor, I have the honour to submit
also, to be read in conjunction therewith, but as in no way dependent on it, (as the following views are my own and put forward on my own responsibility), some
suggestions as to alternatives to the course against
which the signatories petition. I do not yet know
exactly what form the proposed petition may take, and
it is possible that some points may be duplicated;
nevertheless it seems necessary when a protest is lodged
against one way of balancing a Colony's budget to put
forward alternatives which in my view, and possibly in
those of many others of the petitioners, are equally
efficacious and more just.
2. To clear the way or possible general objections,
I shall state in the first place that I claim for Civil
Servants no immunity from disasters of a financial nature
which over take the Colony in which they work.
When
a general disaster threatens they must take their chance
equally with their fellow citizens; this with the quali-
-fication which follows from a consideration of their
different position. The Civil Servant, and especially
he who is not in some way a technically qualified man,
has bartered his liberty and his chance of making a
fortune and accepted in exchange a security from fluctua-
-tion in his position. When the Colony prospers he