CO882-(8-9) — Page 435

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :--

C.O. 882

6

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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Class V the completion of three years' service, dating from his arrival in the Pemasui... provided that he has passed his examinations.

If this suggestion is adopted, I think that the Passed Cadet, during the short tim - that he will be waiting or pron tion, will be adequately paid if he receives £300 a year with free furnishel quarters, especially as he will probably be acting in a Class V post.

I do not suggest that any part of the pay of a Cadet or a Passed Cadet should take the form of a duty allowance. If my proposals are approved, an officer will not go on leave us a Passed Cadet unless he is compelled to do so by ill-health, and, if he shoubl

compelled, a salary of £300 will not be more than sufficient for his requirements, (c) CLASS V

be se

Under the existing scheme, a Class Vofficer in the Straits Settlements receives salary of £120 a year, rising by triennial increments of £30 to £480 ; a Class V officer in the Federated Malay States receives £360 a year, rising by annual increments of £15 LANO,

The origin of this difference is that when the sterling scheme was first introduced in The Federated Malay States, it included a Sixth Class, the officers in which were paid This class was amalgamated with Class V, then paid at the £370 a year rising to £400. same rate as in the Straits Settlements, in 1906, and the present scale of pay was adopted

for the combined class.

The fact that officers in the

The existence of these two scales causes considerable confusion, especially now that officers are freely transferred between the Colony and the Federated Malay States, and there is no good reason for maintaining the distinction. Federated Malay States enjoyed the privilege of free quarters when the sterling scheme was introduced afforded some ground for paying them lower salaries than their The only other contemporaries in the Colony, but that privilege has now been abolished. argument that seems possible is that the duties of many of the posts in Class V of the Felerated Malay States service are not important enough to justify the payment of so high a salary as that of Class V in the Colony. This, however, is certainly not the case with the greater number of posts, and as regards those posts to which the argument does apply the proper course seems to be to adopt some other method of filling them.

I propose, therefore, that Class V officers in the Federated Malay States and in the Colony should in future be paid alike.

(d) CLASS II.

My proposals involve the abolition of the two divisions of the present Class II, which now includes Class IIA (£900 to £1,020 by £60 trientially), and Class IIB, (£780 to £900 by £60 triennially). It would, I think, be difficult to show that the appointments in Class II are materially inferior in importance to those in Class IIA, and the division of this small class into two introduces an unnecessary complication into the classification of the service.

(e) CLASS I.

Officers of this class, with the exception of the Treasurer of the Federated Malay States, who draws £1,020 rising by £60 triennially to £1,200, and the Resident Councillor, Penang, who is paid £1,500 a year, receive at present a fixed salary of £1,200 a year. I recommend that the system of increments which exists in every other class should be applied to this class also, and I propose that this should be effected by means of a reduction of the initial pensionable salary: there is certainly no ground for The minimum increasing the maximum pensionable salary beyond £1,200 a year.

salary proposed, plus the duty allowance of £200 a year, will be slightly in excess of the former salary, as fixed in the sterling scheme, and somewhat below the actual amount received at present (ie. £1,200 + 10 per cent. local allowance) when an officer is and pay The maximum will be the same for the purposes of leave actually on duty pension as the present salary of the class.

There seems to be no reason for maintaining the practice of paying the Treasurer of the Federated Malay States a lower salary than other officers of the class, and I propose that be should be placed on the same footing as the rest.

The work of the Treasurer of the Straits Settlements has been greatly increased in récent years as a result of currency developments and, in the circumstances, I think that there is sufficient reason for paying him a higher duty allowance than most of the other officers in this class.

The Resident Councillor of Penang occupies a somewhat special position, more akin to that of a Resident in the Federated Malay States than to that of an ordinary officer of Class I. (I am inclined to think that it would be better to class this post as a staff appointment.) It is an expensive post and the officer holding it may reasonably be paid more than the usual emoluments of Class I., but I submit that the extra pay should take

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the form of a higher duty allowance and that the pensionable salary should be made the -ime as that of other Class I officers.

17) STAFF APPOINTMENTS.

The salary and duty allowance proposed for the Chief Secretary of the Federated Malay States were approved by your predecessor on the substitution of this appointment for that of Resident General.

As regards the other posts, the following table shews the salaries as set out in the sterling scheme and the amounts which will be received if my proposals are adopted :--

I'ust.

Salary now Proposed.

Salary in

Sterling

Scheme.

Pensionable.

Daty

Total

Allowance.

出

£

£

£

Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements Resident, Perak

1,700

1,500

300

1,800

1,600

1,200

500

1,700

Resident, Selangor

1,400

1,200

400

1,600

Resident, Negri Sembilan

1,300

1,200

300

1,500

Resident, Pahang

1,300

1,200

300

1,500

I submit that the pensionable salary of an officer in this service should not, except in the case of the Chief Secretary of the Federated Malay States and the Colonial Secretary of the Straits Settlements, exceed £1,200 a year. It is very desirable that a check should

be placed on the increase of the great and growing expenditure on pensions, and the case

of these very highly paid officers presents a suitable opening for economy.

A comparison between the Cadet service in the Malay Peninsula and the Civil Service at home is not out of place in this connection, since Cadetships are now filled from the same examination as Clerkships (Clasa I) in the Home Civil Service, and the successful candidates are drawn from the same classes.

For reasons which I have already indicated, any comparison between the salaries of the two services is unprofitable, but in regard to pensions the position is different. Any reasons that can be adduced for the payment of high salaries in the East-the cost of living, the discomforts of exile, the risks to health of living in a tropical climate-do not apply to the case of pensioners. An officer on retiring from the service leaves the East and settles in the United Kingdom, and is thenceforward in the same position as a man who has retired from the Home Service.

There is, therefore, no good reason why his pension should greatly exceed that which he would have drawn if his service had been in England instead of in the Malay Peninsula. Some excess is reasonable, because a man who has spent most of his life abroad will probably be unable to live so economically as one who is used to living in England, but that is all that can be said. Seeing that the highest pension which the ordinary member of the service at home can hope to receive after forty years' service is £666 13s. 4d. a year, I do not think that a pension of £800 can be considered as inadequate for a man with 35 years' service in the Malay Peninsula.

The same argument applies equally to the case of leave pay. The post of Resident in one of the Federated Malay States involves considerable expense, but the Resident, when on leave, has not to keep up any position, and to pay him while in England at the rate of £1,300, £1,400 or £1,600 a year is an extravagance which even the remarkable prosperity of the States can scarcely justify.

Some of the

17. In applying the new scale of salaries to existing members of the service, the precedent set when the sterling scheme was introduced will presumably be followed, and officers will be allowed to come on to the new scale at the point which they would have reached if it had been in force when they entered their present classes. senior officers will probably be unwilling to accept the new scale owing to the proposed reduction of the pensionable emoluments of their present posts. They must, of course, be permitted to draw the existing 10 per cent. local allowance until the end of the year 1911, when it will cease to be paid. It is improbable that any officers, except those at the top of the service, will refuse the terms now suggested but, in case there are any who do so, it would be well to lay down at once that on the promotion of an officer drawing a sterling salary he will be paid according to the new scale.

• Under the recent Superannuation Act it will be £500 a year, but the principle of payment of a lump sum on death or retirement, which has been introduced by the same Act, makes a comparison with other services difficult. I have, therefore, for the sake of simplicity, taken a pension calculated under the earlier Acts.