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3.
Although the standard of living of Chinese in
this Colony had for many previous years been gradually
rising, the inadequacy of the remuneration paid to
Chinese Government Servants was not fully recognised
until their case was considered by the Salaries Commission
whose Report was published in the year 1930.
4. This Report, which dealt with the emoluments
of each Government Department separately and in detail,
recognised in every case that immediate improvement in
the then existing conditions of pay and allowance of
the Junior Civil Servants of the Hong Kong Government
was called for.
5. Sir Cecil Clementi then Governor of the Colony
endorsed the view expressed in the said Report "that
the wages now paid by the Government to its lowest regular
servants are inadequate and that amelioration must begin
from this level and spread upwards".
6.
Although certain departments of the Chinese
Junior Staff had found it necessary to draw attention
to the inadequacy, in many respects, of the recommenda-
tions, the Government of the Colony nevertheless made
certain limitations to the recommendations as they stood.
7. Your Petitioners are aware that attention has
been drawn to the difficulties and hardship of sterling
paid European Civil Servants arising mainly from great
fluctuations in the exchange value of the local dollar,
but it is one of the objects of this Petition to show
that, by the fall in exchange value of the local dollar,
there may accrue to Civil Servants paid in local currency hardships in some respects of greater severity than are necessarily suffered by sterling paid Civil Servants.