39158
$0
No. 40.
FEDERATED MALAY STATES.
MR. CHAMBERLAIN to HIGH COMMISSIONER SIR F. A. SWETTENHAM. (No. 306.) SIR,
Downing Street, November 21, 1901.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 341 of the 11th ultimo,* enquiring whether the grant of double compensation will affect the right of certain officers in the Federated Malay States to count the value of their quarters for pension; and stating that you assume that this grant will not affect the sterling rates at which officers are now entitled to draw their pensions in gold standard countries. 2. As regards the latter question, I have to refer you to paragraph 5 of my despatch No. 341 of the 1st instant, in which I stated that it was not my intention that the leave pay and pension privileges of existing officers should in any way be reduced in consequence of the grant of compensation allowance on the whole of their salaries.
3. The same principle appears to me to extend to the right now enjoyed by certain officers of including the value of the official quarters occupied by them among their pensionable emoluments; and I am accordingly of opinion that this right should not be affected by the grant of the increased compensation allowance.
41681
I have, &c.,
J. CHAMBERLAIN.
81
balance of Currents Accounts and Fixed Deposits on the 31st August, is more than two and a half times that of Singapore and Penang together, the figures being, for Hong Kong, $24,324,181, and for Singapore and Penang, $9,181,760. Sir Thomas Jackson also made out for me a list of the public companies on the market in Singapore and Hong Kong. In the former the total paid-up capital is £2,069,296, and present market value £3,365,202. In Hong Kong the figures are respectively £4,428,439, and market value £11,568,474.
4. These figures show at once the immense superiority of Hong Kong as a financial centre. But as I was anxious to examine the matter in all its bearings, I requested Mr. Messer, now Acting Treasurer, to make out for me a comparative statement of revenue and expenditure of both Colonies, a copy which I also enclose. An examination of Mr. Messer's figures will show that if the population of Hong Kong were called upon to pay a revenue per head equal to that paid in Singapore, the revenue of this Colony would be increased by $2,133,763, and, having regard to the relative difference in the volume of trade, and apparent soundness of investments, and the case with which the taxes are levied in Singapore, this sum may be looked upon as a moderate estimate of possible increase if any increase of taxation here were con- sidered advisable.
5. I have gone thus fully into this matter as I feel that it is important that the true proportion between Hong Kong and Singapore in the value and volume of busi- ness and capacity for raising increased revenue, if necessary, should be laid before you, and the claim clearly stated, that having regard to its greater distance from home, its greater expense of living, and its greater wealth, the Colony of Hong Kong should pay the members of its Civil Service salaries at least equal to those paid in Singapore and the Federated States.
I have, &c.,
No. 41.
HENRY A. BLAKE,
Governor, &c.
HONG KONG.
GOVERNOR SIR H. A. BLAKE to MR. CHAMBERLAIN.
(Confidential.)
(Received November 25, 1901.)
[Answered by Nox, 44 and 66.]
SIR,
Government House, Hong Kong, October 25, 1901. REFERRING to your confidential despatch of 15th August, on the subject of the payment of salaries in future in sterling, the following passage occurs in para- graph 4:-
"In view of the fact that their salaries were raised as recently as the 1st January, 1900, and in view of the heavy present and prospective charges upon the Hong Kong revenue, I do not, as at present advised, consider that these officers should receive the same increase as that given to officers in the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States."
2. Were the financial condition of Hong Kong, as compared with the Straits Settlements, such as to necessitate a different and lower scale of salaries, I feel that the result would be disastrous to the Civil Service of this Colony in the future. Already the well-known expense of living, the increased distance from home, and the loud cries of insanitation got up by a few persons connected with the Press, for the purpose of furthering an agitation for a Municipal Council, the statements being copied into a number of English papers, difficulties are found at home in obtaining candidates for the lower branches of the Service, and a settled scale of salaries on a lower level than those of the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States must result in the recruitment of the Civil Service of Hong Kong from those Cadets whose position on the examination lists did not entitle them to choose the better-paid appointments.
3. With a view of satisfying myself as to the relative position of Singapore and Hong Kong as business centres, and also as to their relative financial soundness, I requested Sir Thomas Jackson, the Chief Manager of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, and second to none as a financial authority on the far East, to prepare a state- ment for me showing the relative positions. I attach copies of his very interesting returns, which show that the volume of the business of Hong Kong, as shown in the
* No. 3*,
‡ No. 32.
↑ No. 37.
41550
No. 42.
STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.
GOVERNOR SIR F. A. SWETTENHAM to MR. CHAMBERLAIN.
(No. 462.)
(Received November 25, 1901.)
[Answered by No. 45.]
SIR,
Government House, Singapore, October 29, 1901. SINCE the date of my despatch, No. 428, of the 28th ultimo,† I had a complete list drawn up of officers who have been drawing exchange compensation on allowances which it is claimed are in the nature of salary, and of officers who, by the terms of their agreement, are entitled to exchange compensation on half their salary.
With regard to the nurses to whom I referred in paragraph 4 of my former despatch, their position is as follows:-
They entered into an engagement to serve for a period of three years as regards passages to and from the Colony, and are not on the pensionable establishment. The ration allowance, on which, by the terms of their engagement they draw exchange compensation, amounts to $300 and their salary to $480. In their case, as the ration allowance forms such an important part of their emoluments, I think double com- pensation should be allowed, on salary and ration allowance, as also in the case of the Matron, Lunatic Asylum.
The Resident Councillor of Penang was allowed to draw exchange compensation on h's Entertainment Allowance, as was done in the case of the Governor, until the salary was fixed in sterling. I have directed that all exchange compensation on this allowance must cease from 1st January last.
There is not sufficient work in connection with Indian Immigration in Singapore to justify a separate Department, but a Government Officer qualified in Tamil has from time to time been appointed Assistant Immigration Agent, in conjunction with his other work, and has drawn an allowance of $300 per annum, with exchange com- pensation.
• Not printed.
† No. 36.
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