CO129-307 - Governor Sir Blake - 1901 [10-12] — Page 676

670

+

applicants. The Inspectors of the Sanitary Department have

+

been reclassed, three classes having been merged into two. The Senior Inspectors now take the place of the first class,

Having gone through the details of the

16.

scheme which has been drawn up under your instructions, I have now the honour to invite your reconsideration of the

conclusion arrived at in paragraph 4 of your Despatch. under

reference. In that paragraph you stated that as then advised

c.. In you did not consider that the Civil Servants of Hongkong should receive the same increase as that given te officers in the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States. In my Confidential Despatch of the 25th. ultimo, I have given what I consider to be strong reasons for my belief that the present and prospective financial position of Hongkong is decidedly stronger than that of either of the sister Depen- dencies. It is true that on account of the frequent visitations of plague, the heavy outlay on sanitary and other works, and the taking over of the New Territory, Hongkong has been debited with a very large expenditure which the Straits Settlments and the Native States have not found necessary. But in my opinion nothing more clearly demonstrates the security of the financial position of this Colony tham the ease with which all demands for extraordinary expenditure have been met without any increase in taxation and without the necessity of incurring a new public debt. In your Despatch to the

March Straits Settlements No. 77 of 1st. March) (paragraph 2) you

stated your opinion that the financial position of that

Colony and the Federated Malay States justified the grant of

a general increase of salaries

•

The facts set forth in my

Confidential

* No 27008. 7 No. 44681. tho.