3
Jal to For N° 236 Conf
7. 12 35
The attached telegram has been sent
x
× N°3
in reply to No. 2 after discussion with
Mr. Jeffries and after a reference by telephone
to the Treasury.
I also ascertained from
Mr. Dale that he could see no legal obstacle
ordninína
to the Government sigutẳng, in respect of
-
December payments to their sterling salaried
staff, a special emergency rate of exchange
for the purpose of dollar payments locally.
On the basis of the customary
procedure for calculating the dollars due by
way of salary to sterling-paid officers, the
system set out in General Order No.91 would
have stipulated an exchange rate of about 1/5,
if we may assume that from now until the 15th
December the daily rate would be maintained
at not less than 1/41 $1. The O.A.G. 's
proposal to convert December salaries at the
fictitious rate of 1/8 would consequently have
meant a very considerable relief to Government
expenditure in December, and a corresponding
special levy on that section of the Government
staff whose salaries are expressed in sterling.
The Treasury, whose system of
assessing the local payments due to sterling-
paid officers of the Imperial Government in
Hong Kong, e.g., Army and Navy, is rather
different from the Colonial Government's
system, have fixed a special rate for December
of 1/5 for the first half of December, with
the rate for the second half shortly to be
announced by the local Treasury Chest Officer.
The