CO129-366 - Governor Sir Lugard Acting Governor May - 1910 [4-5] — Page 490

t

485

country with a Gold standard, from the Widows and Orphans'

Pension Fund of the Colony, be paid through the Crown

Agents for the Colonies at the rate of 3 shillings to the

(

dollar, the difference between the amounts so reckoned and

those payable out of the Fund (at the current rate of ex-

-change) being made good by the Colonial Government": and

such a resolution was in effect adopted by the Hongkong

Legislative Council on the 7th. August, 1902, and was

passed with no other understanding than that this Govern-

-ment was to make up to the beneficiaries out of revenue

the value of the difference between the contribution in

dollars at the current value on the one hand and at 3

shillings to the dollar on the other hand. The resolution,

of which I enclose a copy, is in fact quite specific on the

point.

3.

Moreover, Mr. Chamberlain's

For

705/01.

Strails

02 Despatch No. 53 of the 24th. February, 1902, entirely

confirms the view hitherto taken by the Colonial Treasurer

and justifies the practice which is that in the case of an

Officer drawing a salary fixed in dollars with Rxchange

Compensation, the whole salary is first converted at the

rate of 3 shillings to the dollar, and that then 4 per

centum of the nominal dollar salary is deducted in current

dollars