CO129-481 - Governor Sir Stubbs - 1923 [8-12] — Page 128

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In the present case, however, a payment of

$3,000 a year is made to the Shanghai Judge and, as soon as it became known, as everything of the sort does become known in China, that the Chief Justice of Hongkong was receiving a less sum for identical work, the Chief Justice personally and the Supreme Court of Hongkong as an institution would suffer a loss of prestige, as it would be considered universally, and not only by Chinese, that this amounted to an admission of inferiority.

The Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury could not of course have been expected to

appreciate this difficulty but anyone with experience of China will inform Your Grace that the position is correctly stated and that there would be a "loss of face", which might seriously affect the esteem in which the Supreme Court of

this Colony is rightly held in China,

In these circumstances I venture to renew

the suggestion made in my previous despatch that the

allowance made to the Chief Justice should be $3,000 free

of income-tax. It would be better to settle the matter in

this way than by increasing the allowance for two reasons,

(i) it would avoid any necessity for re-adjusting the allowance if the rate of income-tax were varied and (ii)

it would avoid any inconvenience which might possibly be caused to the Chief Judge at Shanghai by his appearing to

be receiving a smaller sum than his colleague of Hongkong.

I have the honour to be,

My Lord Duke,

Your Grace's most obedient

humble servant,

7.2.0 B.E. Stutte

Governor,

&c.

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