20
d
187
af
therefore really a matter for a Committee but one cannot be appointed until after the resumption of Civil Government. In the circumstances propose to announce that it is only intended for the moment to apply new salaries for Inspectors to new entrants but that they will subsequently be applied to serving officers. A short explanation regarding complications caused by the fact that a period of Japanese occupation has intervened can be given together with an assurance that an adjustment will be made as soon as practicable and that it will be retrospective. It would be necessary to add that it is intended to review the salary scales of certain classes of posts in other departments and that a Committee will be appointed for the purpose as soon as practicable although this will not be possible until after civil government has been re-established. It is believed that such an announcement will satisfy the bulk of the permanent civil servants now at duty and as this seems the only solution if we are to be able to make a start on Police re-organisation your authorisation to proceed on these lines is requested. If desired the actual text of the notice will be telegraphed for approval but it is important that its issue should not be delayed as discontent among clerical staff is growing rapidly.
4.
It is
Local Inspectorate. It is proposed to increase the local Inspectorate from 51 to 88 and to fix their salaries as is shown in the attached table. It is also proposed to make provision for 8 local Assistant Superintendents on a salary of $6,000 x 300 - 7,500. not intended to fill all these posts immediately but an effort will be made to select one or more members of prominent Chinese families for appointment as cadets in this grade. It is hoped by this means to encourage local inspectors to qualify themselves for promotion to these Assistant Superintendent posts.
f
5. Chinese Rank and File. Original proposal was to adopt pre-war Malayan rates which represented considerable improvement on Hong Kong rates. Both are set out in the attached table. The Malayan Dollar of course has a higher value but the cost of living was considerably higher so the Malayan rate probably represents what the Hong Kong salaries should have been in 1941 if they had been reviewed then. Our justification for singling out the Police Department now is
(a) that it is necessary in the interests of good
order and security to have an efficient and contented Police Force and
(b) that we are giving effect to some thing which should have been done before the war and was recognised as necessary then.
We cannot introduce a scale now which is designed to meet post war conditions because the time for this is not yet and in any case it cannot be done in respect of one department only. For these reasons we have been most reluctant to go beyond the Malayan scales but the Colonel C.A. (Police) has represented strongly that this scale falls seriously short of present requirements because with rehabilitation allowance, under the present scheme, recruit would still receive $60 a month which is what he receives at present, and which must be compared with $2 a
a