CO129-456 - Governor Sir Stubbs - 1919 [10-12] — Page 379

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I do not think that it is necessary to extend the smɔ treat-

-mant to the highly paid officers at the top of the service and it appears to me also that it is only reasonable to make

a distinction between the case of bachelors and that of

married men. I recommend that officers drawing salaries of not more than $6,000 a year should be provided with return passages for themselves and, if married, for their families up to a maximum of five persons in all (that being the maximum provided in Colonial Regulation 121), but that bachelors drawing salaries above that figure should not be provided with passages. In the case of married men I would extend the privilege up to a maximum salary of $12,000. Officers in receipt of higher salaries may I think reasonably be expected to be in a position to bear the expense them-

-selves.

It would be desirable to establish a

definite rule as to the intervals at which passages are to be! provided and I would suggest that it should be laid down that, in order to be entitled to the full privilege, an officer must have completed 4+ years' resident service since his last return from long leave, and that if he has not done so a proportionate reduction should be made in the payment allowed for passages, the Government having discretion to relax the rule in a case where ill-health necessitates the taking of leave before the completion of the prescribed period.

Passages on retirement from the service

should be provided on the same conditions.

I would add that I make these suggestions without knowledge of the rules as to the grant of free passages which have been adopted in Ceylon and the Malay Peninsula. If officers serving in those countries have been granted more liberal terms in this respect than those which I have proposed here, I am strongly of opinion that Hongkong officers should receive the same treatment.

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