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allowances. Clerical and subordinate proposals in enclosure to your confidential des- patch of 16th March* should be modified so that no addition of salary would be given to officers receiving Exchange Compensation. Future limit of sterling aalaries as in l'ar. 4 of my despatch of 1st March.t

25313

No. 21.

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

ACTING-GOVERNOR SIR F. A. SWETTENHAM to MR. CHAMBERLAIN.

(Received July 22, 1901.) [Answered by No. 24.]

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to you in August last, and of which we enclose a copy for easy reference. We also invite your attention to the debates on this subject in the Legislative Council on the 16th, 17th and 18th October last, and, finally, to the Report above referred to of the Select Committee of that Council recommending certain increases and proposing that these should take effect from the 1st January, 1901.

5. It will be observed that there has prevailed throughout the Colony for a long time a strong feeling that the pay of its Civil Servants should in justice be considerably increased, and we therefore venture to hope that the relief we ask for may not be post- poned until the entire scheme of re-organized salaries has received your final approval, but that you will so far at once accede to the recommendations of the Select Committee as to sanction some immediate increase from the beginning of the current year, to be hereafter adjusted on the final adoption of a revised scheme.

We have, &c.,

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

(No. 277.) SIR,

Government House, Singapore, June 18, 1901. Ar the request of the signatories, I have the honour to forward herewith two copies of a memorial addressed to you by members of the Government Service in this Colony,

I have no remark to make on this memorial, except to say that it is, perhaps, hardly correct to state (in paragraph 3 thereof) that the memorialists have no know- ledge of the details of the scheme for the payment of salaries, leave pay and pensions in sterling. It depends, of course, on the construction which may be put on the word details," but as I have (as I recently informed you) spent nearly two hours in dis- cussing this scheme with many of the gentlemen who have signed this memorial, and in explaining it to them as far as it was possible to do so, I think the paragraph to which I call attention is calculated to leave a wrong impression on the mind of the

+

reader.

The Right Honourable

25409

Joseph Chamberlain, M.P.,

&c., &c., &c., Colonial Office.

No. 22.

I have, &c.,

F. A. SWETTENHAM.

Enclosure in No. 21.

SIR,

Singapore, June 13, 1901. WE, the undersigned members of the Civil Service of the Straits Settlements have the honour to approach you on the subject of the proposed increase to salaries which we were led to hope for by your reply to a Memorial sent in last July by the members of the Service originally appointed as Cadets, and by the Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council appointed to consider the question, which Report was laid before the Council on the 5th March last.

2. Being aware that an effort was being made to devise a scheme such as would afford satisfactory relief and at the same time meet with your approval, we have not during the past year taken further steps to represent to you the serious pressure caused by the continually increasing cost of living, the increase of wages, of house rents, and rates of passage by mail and other steamers, etc.; but finding that a settlement of the question was likely to be long deferred, a lettert was addressed to the Colonial Secretary of the Straits Settlements (a copy of which we forward for your information) representing the urgent necessity for the grant of some immediate increase to present salaries for the current year, such increase to date back to 1st January last, and to be independent of any general scheme that may hereafter be approved in respect to salaries. We further appealed to His Excellency the Officer Administering the Govern- ment to be good enough to submit our request for your consideration (by telegram, if possible).

3. His Excellency replied that as he was actually engaged in the elaboration of a new scheme (the details of which have not been made known to us), he felt that he was not in a position to forward our present petition or to give it the weight of his support; but at the same time he stated that he saw no objection to our addressing you in a separate Memorial.

4. We would most respectfully invite your attention to the length of time which has elapsed since the first Memorials of certain of the officers of our service, including almost all the members of the Executive Council of the Colony, which was forwarded

§ In No. 1.

• No. 14.

† No. 12.

In No. 17.

C. W. SNEYD KYNNERSLEY,

Acting Colonial Secretary,

(and 79 others).

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

ACTING GOVERNOR SIR F. A. SWETTENHAM to MR. CHAMBERLAIN.

(Confidential.)

SIR,

(Received July 22, 1901.)

[Answered by Nos. 24, 25 and 27.)

Government House, Singapore, June 21, 1901. IN continuation of my confidential despatch of the 17th ultimo,* dealing with the question of an increase in the salaries of Government officers in this Colony, I have the honour to enclose copy of the proceedings at a meeting of the Legislative Council, held on the 4th instant, when Mr. Earle, an unofficial member, put certain questions to the Government with regard to the report of the Select Committee of Council on the salary question.

2. I could not make any public statement in the Council, beyond the replies which were given by the Colonial Secretary, but I thought it was advisable to offer to meet the unofficial members, and tell them frankly how the question of the sterling scheme arose, what was the general purport of my despatches to you, and what I understood to be the feeling of the Civil Servants in the matter.

3. The unofficial members accepted my offer, and I had a long interview with them on the 14th instant. They will, of course, not disclose what passed at our inter- view, but I am anxious that you should understand what is their feeling in this matter, now that I know it. Whilst reserving criticism for details of the scheme, the unofficial members are in favour of paying Government officers salaries at sterling rates, those rates to cover leave pay and pension; always provided that the option of choice is given to those now in the Service, who, in their opinion, ought not to be compulsorily deprived of any privilege they possess. The unofficial members desire to give substantial increases on the salaries now drawn by officers while at work in the East. They now for the first time fully realize the meaning of leave pay and pensions calculated at fictitious dollar rates. They think that an officer's salary ought to show the true amount on which he will draw his leave pay and calculate his pension. They recognise the many difficulties connected with exchange com- pensation, and for these and other reasons, they now consider it advisable to express the salaries of all the higher new appointments in sterling, and to extend the sterling scheme to the salaries of all the senior officers, where that can be done without injustice. Messrs. Burkinshaw, Earle and Allinson are in favour of the sterling scheme so long as it does not compulsorily interfere with existing rights, while Mr. G. S. Murray adds that, should any of the older servants decline to accept the

• No. 17.

9

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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