19
reductions in salaries, but to fix rates (regard-
less of former scales of salary) which would
represent a fair and reasonable addition to
the salaries of officers whilst they are
actually serving in Hong Kong, the salaries
themselves being based on the West African
scales.
fall agam
Paragraph 13. I suggest that the
ideal "cost of living" or "residential" allowance
should not start at nil and rise gradually
there is really no sense in paying any officer
a cost of living allowance of £4 a year. A
greater objection to the scheme proposed in
the report is that after an officer reaches
£1,000 a year the practical effect of the
scheme is to reduce the amount of his incre-
ments. I think that there should be provision
for some reasonable payment to all "time-scale"
conformed, officers, whether on probation or preferment
since, granted that the expense of living in
Hong Kong is higher than in West Africa, the
extra expense falls on an officer during the
whole of his resident service. I accept the
view that the extra cost of living bears less
heavily on officers in receipt of higher
salaries, and the correct thing to do is, I
7
think to give a percentage of salary on the
( first so many £, a smaller percentage on the
next so many £, and a minimum percentage on the
balance, subject to a maximum amount on which
allowance is payable, the percentages to be
arranged so that no officer receives more
salary