CO129-511-6 Salaries and conditions of service of government staff 27-4-1928 - 2-11-1928 — Page 14

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Enclosure No.I.

Hongkong Chinese Civil Servants' Club,

Hong Kong. 7th August 1928.

To The Honourable

Colonial Secretary,

Hong Kong.

Sir,

Te, the undersigned, are members employed

in the service of the Government of Hong Kong and

are of Chinese, Portuguese and Indian nationalities.

2. We beg respectfully to address you on

the hardships we are labouring under brought about by the steady rise in the cost of living in Hong Kong and to request that certain adjustments be made in

the existing scale of salaries of subordinate officers

of Government so as to enable them to live free from

anxiety and unharassed by constant thought of an inadequate income.

3. In support of our application, we beg to submit the following facts for the consideration of His Escellency the Officer Administering the Government. At the same time we beg leave to refer you to a letter forwarded last year to Government by the Chinese Clerical Staff petitioning for salary revision.

4. The high cost of food, general commodities and clothing, in part, accounts for the greatly increased cost of living. Then, again, Chinese in all walks of life and throughout the length and breadth of the country, and not confined to Hong Kong alone, have shown a steady and remarkable tendency to adopt a higher standard of living prompted by the example set by foreign neighbours. This latter fact has an important bearing on the difficulties met with by the undersigned whose sm 11 salaries make it difficult

to