PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TC.O. 882
6
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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now proceeding) will in future be placed at £225 a year, a passed cadet receiving £300, and, if he remains three years without a substantive appointment, a further increase to £350 a year. These rates will clearly make it necessary to raise the minimum sulary of the lowest class of the Civil Service, the sterling value of which is at present a little less than £300.
6. As all new appointments to the Government Service that are made from this country will from this date be made on sterling salarics, I shall be glad if will inform me, by telegraph, at the earliest possible date, what rate of salary should you be offered to candidates for the post of Assistant Engineer, for which, as you have been informed in my despatch, No. 265, of the 13th instant, the Crown Agents will be asked to select a suitable candidate. Pending the receipt of your recommen- dation as to the salary to be offered, no steps can well be taken to fill up this post. It will also be very desirable that I should be furnished with similar information as regards any other posts for which you may wish to have candidates selected in this country within the next few months.
7. The appointment of Examining Supervisor in the Hong-Kong Post Office, to the creation of which you agreed in your telegram of the 9th May last, is heing offered to a candidate from the Imperial Postal Service, on a sterling salary of £180 a year, rising by annual increments of £15 to £240 a year. will be informed that the Principal Land Surveyor, for whose appointment you The Crown Agents ask in your telegram of the 6th instant, will be paid at the rate of £300 a year.
I have, &c.,
J. CHAMBERLAIN.
34194
No. 33.
STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.
GOVERNOR SIR F. A. SWETTENHAM to MR. CHAMBERLAIN.
(No. 369.) SIR,
(Received September 30, 1901.)
[Answered by Nos. 37 and 61.]
Government House, Penang, August 28, 1901.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge your despatch, No. 243, of the 2nd instant, dealing with the question of increased salaries for members of all branches of the Government Service in this Colony, and the Federated Malay States.
2. I feel sure that the decision you have arrived at in this matter will be received with very general satisfaction, and I desire to express to you the thanks of all those who will benefit by the generous treatment accorded to them.
3. I will take immediate steps to carry out your instructions, and I have no doubt the unofficial members of the Legislative Council will be prepared to vote the extra supplies necessary to meet the increased charge for the Colony's establish- ment. The finances of the Straits Settlements and Malay States are well able to bear this extra burden, and all indications point rather to an increase than a diminution of the present prosperity. The present cost of establishments in the Federated Malay States is exceedingly low, while the recent letting of a single revenue farm in one of the States will give an increase of over $600,000 a year.
4. My opinion as to the advisability of fixing in sterling the salaries of all non- clerical posts which are now paid $1,200 and upwards (and even of some which are valued at less than $1,200 a year), remains the same. I have already stated very
fully my reasons for this opinion, and I am glad to find that you concur in it, and that the sterling rate is to be introduced in the case of all newly appointed officers. I realize, however, the difficulty of at once placing existing servants on sterling salaries, especially when they do not desire the change. The plan adopted by you possesses the great merits of simplicity, of instant relief, and of giving ample time to consider a sterling scheme without hurry, and as you have laid it down, without reference to the vested interests of present holders of office.
5. It is certainly the simplest plan to draw a sharp line at 1st August, 1901, and to consider all officers then in the service as on dollar salaries, with the privileges
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to which they are entitled, while all who join after that date will come on the sterling scheme. No doubt you have considered the effect of that decision, but, if it were possible, without pressure or injustice, to get rid of dollar salaries on promotion, I should be in favour of that course, because it seems to me that, when once the merits of the sterling scheme are acknowledged, the sooner we get to its general adoption the better. I am thinking of officers who have just joined the Service, for, in their case, I take it the point is this: "Is the Government bound to keep on its establishment every post which was in existence when those officers joined? Has the Government no right to abolish any post then existing, or to reduce the dollar rate of salary attaching to it, and must the Government maintain to the end of the service of all these officers, the leave pay and pension privileges existing on the 1st August, 1901?"
If the answer to these questions is in each case in the affirmative, there is nothing more to be said. But I imagine the answer cannot be in the affirmative, because the Government has always the right to abolish a post, just as it can create a new one; so, also, the Government can and does reduce the rate of salary which has been allotted to one post and increases that attached to another; and as regards reduction in the sterling rates of leave pay and pension, the Government has already, on more than one occasion, reduced the pension rate from 4s. 3d. to 4s., and again to 3s. 8d.. while, in the case of officers who joined since 1st July, 1897, the rates are 3s. If, then, it was fair in 1890 to reduce the pension rate from 4s. to 3s. 8d. on account of a salary increase of not less than 10 per cent., it seems to me that it would also be fair to say that an officer now drawing $2,400, with compensation and leave and pension privileges, must come on to the sterling scheme when he is promoted to a class which would give him, say, £480.
6. There are, however, some other questions which require an immediate decision, and I will endeavour to put them as briefly and clearly as possible. New posts are being created, constantly, in the Federated Malay States, and occasionally in the Colony. I may instance, out of many, the Director, Public Works Depart ment, and the General Manager, Railways, in the Federated Malay States, and the Commissioner, Court of Requests, in the Colony. These posts will be filled by officers already in the Service. Are the salaries to be expressed in dollars or in sterling? This appears to me to be a considerable difficulty. As you know the officers appointed to the two first-named posts have been many years in the Service, and, if dollar salaries were to be attached to their new offices, commensurate with the duties and responsibilities of the holders, and to put them on a par with similar posts in the Colony, I should say a salary of $6,600 or $7,200 would in each case be necessary. But then these salaries would carry leave pay at 4s. to the dollar and pension at 3s. 8d., and I suppose that both officers would draw double compensation. The salaries drawn by Messrs. Caulfeild and Spooner in their previous appointments were $6,000, with compensation and the other privileges. Another plan would be to grant the increase of salary, say, $7,200, with double compensation, making the total emoluments $10,800, but not to allow the increase to count for leave pay or pension (vide paragraph 13 of your despatch). It seems to me, however, that this would be to adopt a very exceptional and possibly objectionable course. other hand, to fix the salary at £1,080 or £1,100 a year, with free quarters, would On the be simple, but might not satisfy officers who, before the promotion, drew salaries which, at double compensation, would give $9,000 (£900), and were worth for leave pay £1,200 and for pension £1,100.
rate.
The post of Commissioner, Court of Requests, Singapore, would naturally be con- ferred on a cadet. Here, again, is the salary of the new post to be expressed in sterling or dollars? There would be no particular difficulty in a case like this, because it could be given to an officer who was qualified and willing to accept the sterling This post and that of Deputy Public Prosecutor are dealt with in my despatch, No. 303, of July 4th,* and a salary of $5,400 was recommended for the latter as a provisional arrangement. On a sterling scheme this post should come in Class II and might be fixed at £600, rising to £720 by two triennial increments of £60. If the officer recommended for it did not care to accept it on these terms, it could be conferred on some one more junior than Mr. Innes, who would be glad to take it. These are only instances of difficulties which will arise in the creation of new posts, which naturally would go to officers already in the Service.
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