- 3.-
464
scale be devised, exempting all sterling paid officers
receiving less than a minimum monthly salary to be deter-
-mined, and making successive allowances in the cases of
those who are (a) married, (b) married with one or more
children, and (c) married with one or more children in
England. With these allowances, which should be so devised
that noe is made in the case of a bachelor or widower
without dependents, and that the allowances rise to their
maximum in the case of the officer with the greatest
claim on his salary, the following scheme should be applied:
Pay to him a proportion to be determined, say, three-
quarters, of his salary at the Treasury rate for the
month, and in place of the remaining one-quarter issue to
him a corresponding amount of 21% negotiable loan scrip
in sterling, redeemable by the Government in five years
or in such shorter period as it may determine. The officer
who nolds such scrip will be able, should he find it
necessary to do so, to have it discounted by a broker or
banker, while the Government will be able, when exchange
rates are favourable and the economic position of the
Colony allows, to redeem the loan piecemeal.
5.
Thirdly, and this may well become a permanent source
of saving, it would be well to give attention to a curious
and unlooked for effect of the adoption, albeit with modi-
-fications, of the report of the Salaries Commission of
1929-30. The Commission considered the remuneration of
Government officers with regard to the prevailing cost of
living in Hong Kong and the remuneration or employees in
other firms here. But, by the adoption of a scale of
salaries based uniquely on the sterling equivalent of the
amount of local currency held appropriate to the officer's
needs in Hong Kong, not only is it rendered almost impossible