COP Y.
PENSIONS.
123
The concessions which have been granted in respect of
the emoluments of the Public Service of Hongkong include various
privileges in connection with housing accommodation, passages, acting and leave pay, and rates of exchange, in addition to increase of substantive salary; which taken together provide an adequate remuneration for an officer, while he remains upon the Establishment. But for the purpose of fixing the pension on retirement the substantive salary alone is taken into considerat- ion and the other factors are eliminated; with the result that the pension no longer bears that ratio to an officer's total emoluments which it bore before the war.
2. The rate of increase granted in substantive salary varies considerably, but in the majority of cases it ranges between 20 and 30%; and the pension is increased in similar proportion. The percentage of increase in the cost of living in the United Kingdom is at a considerably higher rate; and accordingly it appears to be justifiable to improve the pension prospects of officers whose pensions are based on sterling salaries. I do not include officers whose salaries are paid in dollars, as their pensions are based upon the total doller salary paid in the Colony, whereas the European officer's pension is calculated upon a sum which is very much less in value than the dollar salary which he draws locally.
3. A maximum pension at the rate of two-thirds of the substantive salary is probably sufficient, but the necessary qualification of thirty five years' service is most difficult and exceptional of attainment. A qualification of thirty years would greatly improve the position of the Service as regards pension prospects.
4.
The five years tropical allowance rule might be
cancelled
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