CO885-6 — Page 356

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

། ། ། ། །

C.O. 882

6 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

138

If Government should decide that the terms of my Agreement do not entitle me to double Compensation, I shall be very pleased to know the reason, and also the interpretation of the terms stated therein.

attach a copy of the terms in my Agreement.

The General Manager for Railways,

Federated Malay states.

(D.)

I have, &c..

C. WILSON, Locomotive Foreman, Selangor.

Extract from Agreement.

*

The person engaged shall during the term of two years aforementioned receive, subject to the conditions of the attached Agreement, a salary at the rate of $2,400 per annum, with Exchange Compensation Allowance thereon, but without any over-

ime allowance.

(1117/1902.)

DEAR SIR,

(E.)

R. C. GREY,

Acting Secretary to Government,

Selangor.

SELANGOR GOVERNMENT RAILWAY.

Resident Engineer's Office, Kuala Lumpur, April 18, 1902. WITH reference to your letter of the 1st instant, addressed to the General Manager, Railways, applying for Double Compensation Allowance, the General Manager has written to me as follows:-

"The Government has decided that Mr. Wilson is not entitled to full Exchange Compensation by the terms of his Agreement, because the wording has the effect of incorporating in the Agreement the provision of the Government Orders that were in force at the time the Agreement was made.”

Yours faithfully,

G. W. FRYER, Resident Engineer for Railways, Selangor.

C. Wilson, Esq.,

2398

No. 3, Linden Grove,

Dewsbury Road,

Leeds, Yorkshire,

England.

No. 66. HONG-KONG.

MR. CHAMBERLAIN to ACTING GOVERNOR SIR W. J. GASCOIGNE.

(No. 171.)

SIR,

[Answered by No. 98.]

Downing Street, June 13, 1902.

I HAVE had under my consideration Sir Henry Blake's despatches of the 25th

of October* and the 11th of December last, on the subject of the introduction of sterling salaries into the government service of Hong-Kong.

2. In paragraph 3 of my despatch, No. 426, of the 19th December last, I informed Sir Hefiry Blake of my desire that the same principles should, as far as possible, be adopted in regard to the preparation of a sterling scheme for future

+ No. 44.

No. 41.

† No. 46.

139

appointments to the Hong-Kong government service as had been already laid down in the case of the Straits Settlements. That despatch was crossed by Sir Henry Blake's despatch of the 11th December,* in which he submitted a scheme of sterling salaries.

No. 341, 1st November. No. 73, 10th March,

3. In despatchest to Sir F. Swettenham, the numbers and dates of which are noted in the margin, and of which you have no doubt already received copies from him, I have explained my views as to how far and in what way officers who entered the service before last August should be affected by the introduction of the sterling scheme. The decision at which I have arrived may be summed up by saying that within six months from the publication of the sterling scheme officers will be allowed, without any discrimination on the part of Government, a free choice between coming under the scheme or continuing to receive, during the rest of their service in Hong-Kong, salaries fixed in dollars, as at present, with the addition of double exchange compen- sation. The choice will be final, except that an officer who elects to remain on a dollar salary, and who is hereafter transferred to the Straits Settlements or the Federated Malay States, may be allowed to elect to come under the sterling scheme when so transferred. This answers the second paragraph of Sir H. Blake's despatch of the 11th of December last.*

4. Information on some other general questions not disposed of by previous correspondence is contained in the despatchț to the Straits Settlements of which a copy is enclosed. I also forward a copy of another despatch§ on the subject of the rate at which sterling salaries should be converted into dollars for purposes of local payments. The final decision on this point will, of course, await Sir F. Swettenham's reply; in the meantime the arrangement proposed in paragraph 10 of Sir H. Blake's despatch of 11th December* should remain in force.

5. As regards those recommendations of the Sterling Salaries Committee which affect the calculation of pensions, I am addressing you in a separate despatch.

The question of the contribution to the Widows' and Orphans' Fund of officers whose salaries are fixed in sterling has been dealt with in my despatch, No. 53, of the 24th February last.||

6. Turning to details and taking the highest appointments first, I agree to the salary of the Chief Justice being fixed at £2,000 a year. The salary of the Colonial Secretary should be fixed at £1,600, as in the Straits Settlements. Attorney-General has been offered to and accepted by Sir H. Berkeley on £1,500 The post of a year; and, I think, the Puisne Judge should receive the same salary as the Senior Puisne Judge at the Straits, viz., £1,300 per annum.

7. I have followed the system adopted in the Eastern Colonies, by classifying separately the appointments for which cadets are eligible. This arrangement prover to be exceptionally difficult in the case of Hong-Kong, owing to the smallness of the cadet service, and the fact that there are very few appointments in the lower classes of the Government service, as classified by Sir H. Blake, which are usually held by cadets. I have, in fact, been compelled to abandon any attempt to arrange the cadet posts into the same number of classes as in the Straits Settlements; and I have. instead, divided them into three classes, which are made to cover the same range of salaries as in the Straits Settlements by providing in each class more increments and larger in amount.

8. I propose, in short, that the cadet service shall be classified as follows:-

Class I.

Colonial Treasurer

Registrar-General

First Magistrate

Captain Superintendent of Police

Class II.

Registrar of the Supreme Court

Postmaster-General

Inspector of Schools

Second Magistrate

Assistant Colonial Secretary

Deputy Superintendent of Police

• No. 46.

† Nos. 37 and 35. ‡ No. 68.

£800, rising to £1,000, by two

triennial increments of £100.

£600, rising to £720, by three

triennial increments of £40.

No. 63.

I Not printed.

(The appointments marked thus are not at present held by cadets, but should for the future

he generally given to cadets if any are qualified for them.)

12169

& 2