CO129-388 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1912 [1-2] — Page 210

205

respectfully urge that such hygienic conditions affect

equally all ranks of the service and that if there are just grounds for improving the financial position of cadet officers

such grounds must hold good also for the medical staff of

the Colony.

It is well known however that Hongkong is not popular as a sphere of official medical service, owing to the excess- ive cost of living, the great distance from home which

enances the cost of passages for officers and their fami-

lias, and the absence of any material prospects of promotion,

and as evidence of this fact we would venture to remind you

that some years ago a former Secretary of State directed

that any vacancy occurring in the medical staff at Hongkong

was to be offered in the first instance to the members of

the medical staff in the Straits Settlements and the Feder-

ated Malay States, but in no instance has any such officer

desired transfer to Hongkong. This is no doubt due to the

fact that medical officers in the Straits Settlements have

the opportunity of ultimately obtaining appointments such as

that of Senior Medical Officer to the General Hospital

Singapore with a salary of £780 to £900; Senior Medical

Officer with duty pay of S1200 in addition to the salary of

£600 to £720; Government Pathologist with a salary of £600

to £800;

or Principal of the Medical School, with a salary

of 2600 to £800. There are also greater facilities for

consulting practice, and in some places for general private

practice, in the Straits Settlements and Malay States than

in Kongkong, where in fact such practice is prohibited

Page 210Page 211