15.
positions entitle them but also to raise the standard of the
Service as a whole. It is your petitioners' fervent belief that
a higher commencing salary and a stiffer entrance examination
(to which none is exempt) will attract the more efficient and
capable youths who annually graduate from the schools of this
Colony. As it is, the better type of youths, who receive their
education here go elsewhere.
On the other hand if the above-mentioned rule is
retained, it seems reasonable to ask that the commencing salary
be higher than what it is at present.
Formerly new recruits
who passed the Matriculation or Senior Local Examination of the
University of Hong Kong were allowed a better commencing salary
viz. $750 and $700 respectively, instead of $480 a year.
Now that this qualification has become general,
it is natural to assume that the standard of the Junior Clerical
Service as a whole has been raised.
Accordingly your petitioners
should now be better remunerated. Appendix F gives a comparative
table of the salary scales of various subordinate Civil Servants.
From this it will be seen that other branches have, comparatively
(i.e. when compared with their qualifications) a better commenc-
ing salary, fewer divisions and bigger increments than your
petitioners.
17. That the Special Class should be entirely separated
from the Junior Clerical Service. (Appendix J).
18. That at least one official Justice of the Peace
should be appointed from this branch of His Majesty's Civil
Service in order to enhance the standing of Chinese Civil Servants
a whole. The fact that ex-members of the Junior Clerical Service,
as
such as Sir Robert Kotewall, Kt., C.M.G., LL.D., and the late
Mr. Wong Kwong Tin, ex-Chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce,
were appointed Justices of the Peace, after they had left the
Service, shows not only that some of your petitioners can qualify