Secretariat file No.
L/M.P.8/23/9.
SAVINGRAM
To the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
From the Governor, Hong Kong.
Date
26th
May 1950.
No. 368 Steff
9
21051/1/2/1/44 _ in curie I
Eligibility of Government House Servants for retiring benefits under the Pensions Ordinance No.21 of 1932 and the Pensions Ordinance No.50 of 1949.
Reference to copies of the annual Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure of this Colony before the Estimates for 1948/49 shows that up till 1st April, 1948, there was provision made each year under Head 1/1 for payment of an allowance to the Governor for "Wages for private servants' employed at Government House. Although the staff who were paid from this allowance in the Estimates were engaged on a personal basis by the Governor of the day and his successors were under no obligation to continue to employ them, it has been customary for succeeding Governors to retain the private servants employed by their predecessors and these servants became, in effect, not the private servants of particular Governors but servants of the Government. It has been ascertained that it was, in fact, the practice for many years for the Treasury to pay the wages of the private servants concerned and to charge the expenditure to the particular item under Head 1/1 of the Estimates, i.e., to use the item as an open vote although it was included in the Personal Emoluments sub-head. There are, however, no records available now to show when this practice was first introduced. Certain similar domestic staff of Government House have, of course, always been appointed to posts shown on the non-pensionable establishment proper under Head 1/1 of the Estimates. All Government House servants were brought on to the revised salary terms with effect from 1st January, 1947, in the same way as other officers.
2. In connection with the preparation of the Estimates for 1948/49 I gave instructions that the private servants concerned should be shown on the non-pensionable establishment under Head 1/1 and in the Estimates for that year they were shown as "Household Staff" payable from a block vote in the same way as temporary staff have been paid from block votes under other Heads of the Estimates since the war. In the Estimates for 1949/50 their posts were included in the body of the non-pensionable establishment under Head 1/1 together with other similar Government House servants paid on the same incremental scales.
The officers concerned are as follows: HOUSE Nort Boy
Appointed 1010.10 8.4 y Appointed 1925. Invalided with effect from 3. 4. 49.
Appointed 1926.
Cheung Yee
House Boy
Tsang Lin
House Boy
Chung Ping Sam
House Boy
House Boy
Lee Shu Sum
Fung Kui
Appointed 1923.
Appointed 1. 1. 47.
House Boy
Cheung Kwun
Appointed 1. 3. 49.
Cook
Chu Woo
Appointed 1. 11. 38.
Coolie
Lui Kam
Appointed 1. 5. 46.
Wash Amah
Chan Tai
Appointed 1. 9. 45.
Wash Amah
Wong Ku
Appointed 1. 9. 45.
Wash Amah Wan Tai
Appointed 1. 2. 22.
H K • PACIFIC 2- JUN 1950