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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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14. As regards the legal posts, I think that the salary of the Chief Justice should not be fixed lower than 2,000 per annum, and I would suggest that if the private practice as a barrister which the Attorney-General now enjoys is ever taken away from the post, the salary should be fixed at £1,500 per annum. Otherwise I agree to the rates proposed.

I note that the appointment of Solicitor-General, Penang, appears to have been overlooked in drawing up the scheme. I would suggest a salary of £900 for this post: thus preserving the ratio which the dollar salary now bears to that of the Attorney-Generalship.

15. I also agree to your proposals as to the medical and ecclesiastical appoint-

ments.

16. I notice that you wish to reduce the salary of the Director of Gardens, which is now $4,800 per annum (or, at 3s., £720), to £480, rising by triennial incre- ments of £30 to £600. You do not assign a reason for the reduction, and, without further explanation, I do not see my way to sanction it. 1 attach great importance to fixing the salary of this post high enough to ensure that it will continue to attract men of scientific attainments; and I am disposed to suggest that the minimum sterling salary should be £600, rising to a maximum of £720. Otherwise, I see no objection to the sterling rates proposed for "Miscellaneous appointments."

17. The salaries suggested for the Public Works and Survey Department appear generally suitable. I would, however, give the Superintendents of Works and Surveys three increments of £40 instead of four of £30, and give the same rate of increment to the Senior Survey Officer. I also consider that the Assistant Superintendents of Works and Surveys should be given the same rate of salary as the Senior Survey Officer. The same rate might also be granted to the new post of Architectural Assistant, referred to in your despatch, No. 61, of the 14th February last.*

18. The only other Department as to which I feel any doubt is that of Education. I incline to think that £200 per annum is too low an initial salary for European masters, and I would further suggest that First Grade Masters might be put on the scale of Class V. of the Civil Service, viz., £420 per annum, rising to £480 by triennial increments of £30.

I should be glad if you would consider whether the post of Sub-Inspector of Schools, Malacca, might not, on the occurrence of a vacancy, be placed on the scale suggested above for First Grade Masters, and thrown open to cadets.

19. I have addressed you in a separate despatch, No. 141, of the 30th May,† in regard to the question of the rate at which sterling salaries should be converted into dollars for purposes of local payments.

The same rate should be applied to the payment on leave in non-Asiatic countries of the salaries of those subordinate officers hereafter appointed whose salaries continue to be fixed in dollars, viz., all officers whose salaries are at present below $1,200 a year, and who hold posts not usually held by Europeans; and all those who hold elerical appointments.

20. I have also addressed you in a separate despatch (No. 178, of the 6th instant), in regard to the proposal made in paragraph 19 of your despatch, that the special" professional qualifications" addition to the pensions of certain officers should be abolished.

21. If you accept the modifications of the sterling scheme which I have suggested in this despatch, it would be well that the scheme should be at once published, and that a period of six months should be fixed during which existing officers should be allowed the option of coming under its operation. The payment of salary at the sterling rate should not, in any case, begin before 1st January next.

The six months' period should, of course, be extended in the case of officers on leave, so as to permit of the scheme being communicated to them from the Colonial Secretary's office.

22. In conclusion, I desire to express my appreciation of the care and ability with which this scheme and that for the Federated Malay States have been drawn up, and the full and lucid explanations with which they have been accompanied in your despatches.

23. I enclose a copy of a despatch§ which has been addressed to the Governor of Hong-Kong.

I have, &c.,

J. CHAMBERLAIN.

• Not printel.

↑ No. 63.

† No. 48.

No. 66.

6885

SIR,

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No. 68. FEDERATED MALAY STATES.

MR. CHAMBERLAIN to HIGH COMMISSIONER SIR F. A. SWETTENHAM.

(No. 159.)

[Answered by No. 92.]

Downing Street, June 13, 1902.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the despatches,* noted in the margin (which need be no longer regarded as confi- dential), in which you deal with the question of the

High Commissioner, Conf., Jan. 20. adoption of sterling rates of salary in the Federated 22. Malay States, and submit a scheme of sterling 22. salaries.

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Mar. 11.

2. Much of what I have said in my despatch of even datet on the similar scheme for the Straits Settlements applies equally to the case of the Federated Malay States. I wish, however, to emphasise my decision that Government should not exercise any discrimination among officers, but that all officers who hold posts to which sterling salaries will be eventually attached shall be allowed a free option of coming under the sterling scheme or continuing to receive salaries fixed in dollars.

3. In my Straits Settlements despatch, No. 77, of the 1st March, 1901 (para- graph 12), I suggested that the scale of salaries adopted in the Federated Malay States should be somewhat lower than that for the Colony, in consideration of the fact that all officers in the Federated Malay States enjoy free quarters. I appreciate, however, the force of the arguments against this view which are set out in paragraphs 3, 4 of your despatch of the 20th January:§ and I am prepared to waive my suggestion.

4. The adoption in the Federated Malay States of a scale

sterling salaries generally equal to those proposed for the Colony must, of course, involve very consider- able expenditure; and from Mr. Eckhardt's memorandum enclosed in your despatch of 11th March, it seems that the average annual increase is likely to exceed $250,000, or about one and a half per cent. of the total revenue of the four States. The Federated Malay States, however, are at least as able as the Colony to bear increased expenditure, and having in mind the considerations put forward in paragraph 8 of my Straits Settlements despatch of even date,†I am prepared to agree generally to the rates embodied in your scheme, subject to the modifications suggested below.

5. I am disposed to think that a preferable arrangement to your proposal in regard to the salary of the Resident-General would be to fix the salary at £2,000 a year, and to give him an Entertainment Allowance of $2,400 per annum.

It seems

to me that this course is preferable to granting the Entertainment Allowance to the locum tenens only, as you propose.

I have considered your proposal to make the office of Resident-General tenable for a term of five years, and to include it in the list of Colonial Governors. As at present advised and subject to any further observations you may wish to make, I am unwilling to make this change. I can see no advantage in the former course; and to adopt the latter would, perhaps, give countenance to a claim on the part of some future Resident-General to a greater degree of independence of the High Commissioner than is now enjoyed, and than, in my opinion, should be accorded.

6. I see no objection to your proposals as to the Residents; and I accept the classification scheme for the cadet service, and the suggested salaries with the excep- tion of the Legal Adviser, for which post I am inclined to think that a salary of £1,200 per annum would be sufficient. I agree to the proposal made in your despatch of 22nd January last as to the salary of the Secretary to the Resident-General, and that post may be offered to Mr. Wise, on a salary of £1,020 a year. Should he not

be prepared to accept a sterling salary, the offer must be reconsidered.

7. The salary of a passed cadet has been fixed at £300 per annum, rising to £350 after three years' service in that grade; and the salary allotted to passed cadets in the scheme should be altered accordingly. I would, moreover, point out that a passed cadet would lose by accepting one of the six "additional appointments" open

+ No. 12.

• Nos. 49 and 57, and 6887 and 6888: not printed.

§ No. 49.

16887

† No. 67. not printed.

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