CO129-510-11 Salary of post of secretary for Chinese affairs- request for increase 6-3-1928 - 26-4-1928 — Page 14

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exaggeration to say that the well-being of the whole community and the smooth-running of the administrative machine depend in this Colony mainly upon the manner in which the Secretary for Chinese Affairs controls the working of his department and of the numerous Chinese organisations in which he is the principal figure. The post of Secretary for Chinese Affairs is of outstanding importance to the Hong Kong Government and I strongly urge that this fact should be marked by giving it a special place in the salary scheme as proposed in the first paragraph of this despatch.

5.

The present Secretary for Chinese Affairs is the

Honourable Mr. E.R. Hallifax, C.M.G., C.B.E. His record

appears on Page (53) of the Hong Kong Civil Service List for

1927, from which you will see that he has held this responsible post since the 30th October, 1911, and that he has been a substantive member of the Executive and Legislative Councils

of the Colony since the 29th November, 1912. He has drawn the maximum salary of his post, namely, £1,500, since the 1st

January, 1920, and I recommend that in the estimates for next

year his salary should be fixed at the rate of £1,800 per annum as from the 1st January, 1929. Mr. Hallifax has been Secretary

for Chinese Affairs in Hong Kong ever since the Chinese Revolution began. He is now acting as Colonial Secretary, a

post which he has filled since Mr. Southorn went on leave early

in last December, and which it is probable that he will

continue to hold until I return from leave at the end of this

year. His service thoroughly merits the increment of £300

involved in my recommendation and you will notice that he has

served without increment to his salary for the past eight

years. I wish, however, to make it quite clear that the

recommendation which I now make is based upon grounds not

peculiar to the case of Mr. Hallifax, but upon the importance

of