129
What the foot has to face!
the increase in the cost of living.
22.
What, however, your Petitioners desire to draw
particular attention to, is that the difficulties in
financial adjustment, which presented themselves in varying
degrees before the levy, have now suddenly arrived at
a stage where they appear to be insuperable.
in
23. For the purpose of further illustration,
Appendix "D" are given two carefully worked out examples
of the expenditure of Civil Servants in the lower grade,
namely, (a) that of a Class VI clerk on a normal monthly salary of $87.50, and (b) an office attendant on a normal
monthly salary of $27.00. The observations in paragraph
21 apply with equal force to these illustrations.
24.
Your Petitioners feel that if the levy remains
in force they are faced with the alternative of rigorous
retrenchment or insolvency. The illustrations of expendi-
ture already given, it is confidently submitted, indicate
clearly the difficulty of deciding in which direction
retrenchment can be effected. In this connection, your
Petitioners desire to emphasise that, as regards monthly
rentals, a reduction in this category cannot be seriously
contemplated as the housing problem and conditions
generally, under which junior Civil Servants have to
live, having regard to the respective rentals they can
afford, is a matter which has already presented a serious
problem.
25.
In the lower grades, Civil Servants are compelled
to suffer from the general overcrowding which is now
prevalent amongst the poorer classes.
Some relief was
intended by the recommendations of the Salaries Commission
referred