CO882-6 — Page 289

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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officers.

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7. Paragraph 12.-I recommend. Houses are gradually being supplied to public

8. With reference to Table II, it is desirable that the Classes of the Service should be re-considered, and that Class V, which now comprises more than one-third of the Service, should be reduced to about one-fifth of it, by transferring appointments to higher Classes.

9. With reference to Table III, my own feeling is opposed to increments for several reasons. Officers are too apt to regard the maximum pay assigned to an office or Class as theirs by right, and any sum short of that maximum as wrongfully withheld by the parsimony of Government; they argue that as the normal expenditure of an officer holding the post is constant, so his salary ought to be constant.

But these arguments have not prevailed against the adoption of the system in Ceylon, and, as there is less variety of station in this Colony, the system is, perhaps, less unsuited to the Straits.

10. As regards the details in Table III, I think the Colonial Secretary's post might remain as it is, and I recommend for careful consideration the rest of the scheme with the following modifications.

The Judicial Service is a very important one, and I think the 2nd Magistrates, Singapore and Penang, should be added to Class II, the 3rd Magistrates at those places to Class III, and the 4th Magistrate, Singapore, to Class IV.

11. I am not in favour of making special allowances to passed Cadets unless they remain over three years in that class, in which case I think they might be allowed $300 per annum extra.

12. If the Cadet Service be allowed a general increase of pay, there are other departments of the Public Service whose case will require consideration; the Chief Justice, the Principal Civil Medical Officer, the Master Attendant, and his Assistant have recently been granted increases of emoluments. Amongst others the Attorney- General and the Puisne Judges' salaries will require re-consideration if those of the Cadet Members of the Civil Service be increased.

13. But the most urgent case for consideration is that of the clerical branch of Singapore. the Public Service, which has addressed to me the enclosed Memorials. Penang. Malacca.

14. Notwithstanding the 10 per cent. increase granted so recently as 1897, I find great difficulty in securing proper recruits for the Clerical Service. Boys from school, who can write a letter in English, are in great demand amongst mercantile firms, and the supply is scarcely equal to the present demand.

15. I have told the Memorialists from the Clerical Service that, owing to the famine in India and the commencement of the development of China, this year and last have been exceptional ones, but, after making due allowance for these matters, I still regard the case of the Clerical Service as the one more urgently requiring relief.

16. As regards revenue, I am glad to be able to report that our prospects for the next three years are excellent, as we are just letting the Opium and Excise Farms for an increase of 48.77 per cent, on their present value, to take effect for three years from 1st January next.

I have, &c.,

Enclosure 1 in No. 1.

J. A. SWETTENHAM.

To The Right Hon. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., Secretary of State for the Colonies. SIR,

We the undersigned members of the Civil Service of the Straits Settlements originally appointed as Cadets desire respectfully to bring to your notice the unsatis- factory condition of the service as regards pay and promotion, and to urge the necessity for a re-organization similar to that recently approved for Ceylon.

2. Before stating the changes which we advocate, it will be convenient to point out the alterations in our position which have taken place since the re-arrangement of the service in 1890.

3. The number of appointments in the different classes of the Civil Service, and the number of Civil Servants then and now are:-

1890.

1900.

Total number of appointments

29

35

Officers originally appointed as Cadets

32

53

3

Those officers who have been transferred to the Federated Malay States and other Services are not included in these figures.

4.

The exchange value of the Dollar in 1890 was 3/5. Now it is 1/11. An Exchange Compensation allowance was granted in 1894, half the salary of each officer being thenceforward paid at the rate of 3s. to the dollar.

Taking the present rate of exchange of the dollar as 2s. (it has been below this for a long time now), this makes our salaries equal to a payment in sterling at 2/6 to the dollar. At the time that this compensation was granted, the finances of the Colony were not in nearly so prosperous a condition as they now are, and we believe it was owing to this that a more liberal compensation was not given. We would point out that the cost of living is much less in Ceylon than it is in the Straits, house-rent, servants' wages and the cost of provisions being much lower there. The purchasing power of the dollar, which is intrinsically worth more than double the rupee, is not much greater than that of the rupee in Ceylon. In Ceylon the compensation rate is 1/6, and the rupee, owing to the closing of the Indian Mints, stands at 1/4. This makes every two rupees of a Ceylon Civil Servant's salary equal to 2/10. The equivalent rate in the Straits would be approximately 2/11. The actual rate is 2/6.

5. Table I shows the increase in what may be called local expenditure since 1890. Articles only obtainable from gold-standard countries (amongst which India and Ceylon may now be included) have also increased in price rather more than proportionately to the fall in exchange. The increase amounts to considerably over 40 per cent. Special attention is invited to the extraordinary increase in rent and hotel boarding charges. The former presses most heavily on the senior members of the Service, the latter on the juniors.

6. Table II shows the present number of appointments in each class of the Civil Services of Ceylon and the Straits, compiled from the local Civil Service Lists of those Colonies for 1900.

7. It will be observed that, whereas in Ceylon the percentage of appointments included in the first three classes is 65.7, in the Straits only 43.2 per cent. of the total are so placed.

8. We most respectfully suggest for your favourable consideration the scheme set out in Table III, which is compiled on the lines of that recently approved for Ceylon, and by which the percentage of appointments in the first three classes is so increased as to equal that of the adjacent Colony. Without some such change, the bulk of the service, and especially those who are still Cadets or in Class V, have very remote chances of promotion to an appointment with a salary sufficient to enable them to marry at a reasonably carly age. More than half of the service are drawing salaries of £300 per annum or less. We further submit that the great increase in importance of the Colony, and the consequent increased responsibility of the appointments in its Civil Service, call for a re-adjustment of salaries on a basis commensurate with its present position.

9. The case of the junior members of the service is peculiarly hard. There are at present no fewer than 18 cadets without appointments, five of whom are passed and the rest unpassed. Several of the latter will probably pass within the next year. A passed cadet receives only $1,800 per annum, while an unpassed cadet gets $1,500, and furnished quarters. With house rents as high as they now are, the passed cadet, unless he be acting in an appointment, is really worse off than the unpassed. Pro- motion is for him extremely slow, and it is practically impossible for a junior to save enough to pay his passage home after 6 years' service, and exceedingly difficult for him to live at home on the half pay of a passed cadet or of a 5th class appointment, especially since the lowering of the rate of home pay for cadets appointed in and after 1897. We therefore suggest for consideration that the increment system be extended down to the passed cadets and not limited to the first three classes.

10. We also ask that the age for optional retirement be reduced to 50, and that of compulsory retirement, when considered desirable by the Government, to 55. We believe that this alteration would meet with the unanimous approval of medical officers in the Straits Settlements, including private practitioners. The climate is exceptional, there being absolutely no cool season; there are no appointments in hill districts nor even any bill sanatorium except that in Penang, which is situated at an elevation of only 2,500 feet, and is expensive and difficult of access to all except those quartered in that Settlement. The Straits climate is not a very trying one for a few years, or for short periods broken by long residence in a colder climate, but we submit that it is a climate exceptionally trying for a prolonged residence, a view which we

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