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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 TO

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SIR,

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No. 8.

STRAITS: FEDERATED MALAY STATES.

SIR F. A. SWETTENHAM to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Confidential.)

(Received December 26, 1900.)

[Answered by No. 12.]

Llwyn Oun Hall, Wrexham, Sunday, December 23, 1900.

I RECEIVED, last night, your letter, 39721, of the 21st instant, with a number of enclosures, concerning certain proposals for an increase of salaries to Officers in the Federated Malay States and the Colony of the Straits Settlements.

2. I will write my remarks on the proposals, as they affect the Federated Malay States, but first, I think, it is necessary that I should know the Secretary of State's views on certain general questions.

3. It appears to me as though the scheme prepared in the Native States had been framed with the object of giving every executive officer an increase in salary, more or less considerable, without due regard to a number of general considerations, or, perhaps, to the special circumstances of each post. The appointments have been graded, and periodical increments are provided in almost every case.

4. In the first place the Secretary of State has recently agreed to increases which amount to about $50,000 a year, for it is impossible to ignore the fact that all these salaries carry compensation. I am prepared to advocate a further more or less general increase, on the lines of the scheme marked I., but I must point out to you what that will mean.

5. The scheme seems to contemplate an increase which is estimated at $100,000 per annum, and with compensation that will be $125,000,-now that is only for one section of the establishment, and I have already pointed out (before I left the East) that the Senior Members of the l'ublic Works Department have hitherto been hardly treated, and their case is much more urgent than that of the officers whose posts are included in scheme I. I do not think it would be possible, in fairness, to limit the increase to the Executive Branch; it must include the Public Works Department, the Survey, Medical, Kailways, and probably extend to all the departments of the Government Service. If I am right the annual increase in salaries might amount to $200,000 or more if drawn on the scale of Scheme I.

6. That, I think, is a point of considerable importance, but there is another of greater concern to the Governments of the Federated Malay States, and it is this- every officer of every department in our service hopes to take leave whenever it is due, and looks forward to retirement on pension. Nothing is said in these about

papers leave and pension rates, but no one expects them to be less than 3s. 8d. in one instance, and 3s. in the other; while by far the majority of officers expect, and are entitled to, much better terms. The dollar has for years been worth about 2s., and it appears to me to be a very extraodinary thing to go on engaging men with a promise that they shall draw leave and salary and pension at purely fictitious rates, and, if the salaries are now increased in the manner suggested, the States may some day have to bear a heavy burden for pensions drawn at rates to which, so far as I can see, the officers engaged during the last few years, and to be engaged in the future, have no claim

whatever.

7. Years ago I very strongly recommended that all salaries of Europeans in the Native States should be expressed in sterling, and I still believe that if my advice had been accepted, many complaints would have been removed, and the States would have been relieved from the difficult position in which they are now placed-if there is to be a general revision, an increase of salaries-I think it is probable that even now the best and safest policy would be to put the salaries in sterling, abolish com- pensation, and pay leave salaries and pensions upon the actual salaries drawn.

That is one question to which I should like to have an answer.

8. Again, I see it is proposed to charge a moderate rent for quarters, generally, but with certain exceptions. We have tried that plan and it signally failed. It could, I have no doubt, be enforced, but it bristles with difficulties which would never be imagined from the very simple statements which accompany the proposal. It is of

No. 7.

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the utmost importance to know whether the privilege hitherto granted to European officers in the Federated Malay States is to be continued or not for the value of free quarters must, of course, be considered in determining the rates of salary.

9. Curiously enough there is another proposal to grant free quarters to all clerks Some years ago I told the Residents that the Government could not go on for ever building quarters to house the rapidly increasing numbers of clerks, and that wherever possible they must find their own quarters. I should be sorry to see the Government committed to the necessity of housing every clerk and his family free, while it attempted the difficult task of securing the regular payment of rent from Europeans who are constantly moved from house to house, and who would always try to dispute the rent or decline to occupy the quarters that happened to be available.

On this question of free quarters or rent it is also advisable that I should have the Secretary of State's views.

10. I do not think it is possible to so amalgamate the services of the Colony and the Federated Malay States as to make it possible to constantly move officers from one to the other. I feel very confident on this point. The circumstances of the Colony and the Federated Malay States often differ so greatly that the Colonial Officer would find it very difficult to discharge the duties of the Federated Malay States post. The difficulties in arranging promotions even now, so that no injustice shall be done, are so great that I hesitate to contemplate the position if the claims of all Colonial Officers had to be considered every time a vacancy occurred.

11. I will not now go into the details of any of the proposals contained in any of these schemes beyond saying that I think the posts of Residents of the four States ought to be considered as Staff appointments and should not be classed.

42375

SIR,

No. 9.

I have, &c.,

FRANK SWETTENHAM.

FEDERATED MALAY STATES.

SIR F. A. SWETTENHAM to COLONIAL OFFICE. (Received December 28, 1900.) [Answered by No. 12.]

Llwyn Oun Hall, Wrexham, December 27, 1900. WITH reference to your letter 39721, of 21st instant, with correspondence concerning proposals for increasing the salaries of Government Officers in the Federated Malay States, it occurs to me that you may not be able to answer the questions I have already asked on this subject without the original enclosures forwarded to me with your letter under reply.

2. I have therefore the honour to return all the papers which you sent to me and, in the hope that I may thereby save you some trouble, I have prepared a memorandum, which I now enclose.

I have, &c.,

FRANK SWETTENHAM.

Enclosure in No. 9.

SCHEME No. I. for the improvement of Salaries in the Federated Malay States.

1. I believe that it would be greatly to the interest of the Federated Malay States and will avoid endless difficulty and dissatisfaction if, even at this late day, the opportunity is taken of fixing the Salaries of all permanent posts, held by Euro- peans, in sterling instead of in dollars.

2. The present scale of salaries carries in most instances leave pay at four shillings to the dollar, and, what is of far more importance, pension at either that rate, three shillings and eightpence, or, in the case of a few recently-joined cadets, at three shillings to the dollar.

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• No. 7.