CO129-510-11 Salary of post of secretary for Chinese affairs- request for increase 6-3-1928 - 26-4-1928 — Page 8

NP CONFIDENTIAL.

GR

52846

RECEIVED

11 APR 1928 OOL.OFF

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONGKONG. 6th March, 1928.

سى

38669/07

2 6 APR 1928

And bon

Sir,

2.

I have the honour to bring up for your

consideration the question of the salary to be attached to the post of Secretary for Chinese Affairs. The present salary

is that of the 1st class of the cadet service, namely £1,250

rising to £1,500 by £50 annually, but I recommend that the

salary should in future be the same as that of the Attorney General, namely, £1,800 per annum without increment, and that the officers holding the posts of Attorney General and of Secretary for Chinese Affairs should have the same status, taking precedence the one of the other in accordance with priority of date of their appointment to their respective posts.

The Secretariat for Chinese Affairs is, next

after the Colonial Secretariat, the most important department

in the executive administration of the Hong Kong Government.

The status and the duties of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs (who before the 25th July, 1913, used to be known as Registrar General) are set out in a memorandum enclosed in Sir F.D. Lugard's confidential despatch of the 3rd October, 1907, to Lord Elgin. This memorandum was written before the Chinese Revolution of 1911, but it is not in any way out of date, and the course of events since the Revolution has only tended to

make

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

LIEUTENANT COLONEL L.C.M.S. AMERY, M.P.,

&C.,

&c.,

&C.