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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
community as well as for the Government and fully qualified officers are necessary and the Government had no reason to believe that a local candidate with the necessary qualifications was available for the vacancy. In this connection I would remind the Honourable Member that one of the existing Assistant Analysts is a local appointee.
I regret to have to state that the initial experiment of employing Chinese Sub-Inspectors of Police proved unsuccessful, and that the services of the officers employed in that capacity had to be discontinued.
The mover and seconder of this motion have both referred to the subject of bribery and to the need for some change in the conditions of employment which would make it easier to dispense with an officer's service. Now, Sir, however desirable it may appear that the services of Government servants generally should be determinable at the discretion of the Governor-in-Council, the Government is bound by the Colonial Regulations covering this matter, and it is more than doubtful whether the Secretary of State for the Colonies would grant a special dispensation therefrom in the case of one Colony. Criminal proceedings, as the Honcurable Member points out, may not in certain cases be successful, but a difficulty exists in that if an officer were found guilty by the Governor-in-Council of an offence which is clearly criminal he might well protest that the Government did not venture to bring the case before a Court, so that he might take his trial before a public and independent tribunal.
The seconder proposes a far-reaching change on which he will hardly expect the Government to express an opinion at a moment's notice. The Government will however give careful consideration to his proposal.
The mover points the finger of reproof at certain individual officers and certain departments. He mentions the Secretary to the Director of Public Works, whose salary is on a scale recommended by the Salaries Commission, which consisted of the then Chief Justice of this Colony, together with two gentlemen who have been members of this Council. He refers to the Librarian and Chief Clerk at the Colonial Secretary's Office and asks whether the one need be a sterling paid officer and the other on a salary of £1,050. In respect of the Librarian, it should be pointed out that this officer is responsible for the preparation of Government publications and their distribution, is also the storekeeper of the office and in charge of the Government printing and publishing sales department. He also performs the clerical duties in connection with the Legislative Council meetings. It is more than doubtful whether he could be efficiently replaced by an officer on a lower scale of salary.
In regard to the Chief Clerk, who is the head of the Government Clerical Staff, and to the European clerical staff of the Colonial Secretary's Office generally, it will be remembered that this Colony differs from most other Colonies by the fact that the great majority of its inhabitants and even of its locally recruited Civil Servants are
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