CO129-422 - Governor Sir May - 1915 [5-6] — Page 28

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respectfully point out that should they be allowed to apply

for posts outside the Interpretation Sub-Department, they

would be regarded as junior in service to clerks in the same

grade and with the same service because the latter have had

their increments two years in advance.

6. Your Petitioners beg to submit copies of their

applications to the Hongkong Government in regard to this

matter. Your Petitioners cannot find any reason for the

different treatments meted out to Clerks and to the members

of the Interpretation Sub-Department, inasmuch as interpre-

tere and translators have to pass an examination and obtain

a certificate of efficiency for every step of promotion

while no examination is required for the promotion of clerks.

General Order 16(5) of 1907 states that an officer holding

--

a post in the Interpretation Sub-Department, who fails to

qualify for that post within a period of two years from the

date of his appointment, will be liable to be replaced by a

qualified man". No such regulation exists for the clerical

branch. Moreover Interpreters and Translators have, all of

them, clerical duties to perform, in addition to their ow

specialised work of interpretation or translation.

the

7. When the new scales of salaries were under the

consideration of the Government Mr. A. W. Browin C.M.G.,

then head of the Interpretation Sub-Department told Your

Petitioners that, as Interpreters and Translators had with-

out exception undergone special training and possessed an

education above the average to qualify them for their posts,

they would receive better treatment than the clerks regard-

ing these increases of salaries. The decision of the Govern-

ment has, however, brought about an opposite result.

8.

Your Petitioners are of the humble opinion that