CO129-511-6 Salaries and conditions of service of government staff 27-4-1928 - 2-11-1928 — Page 3

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2 Jo hotel 9 July 1928.

It remains to be decided whether

the Commission should be a local or an

independent one. Sir C. Clementi in

conversation adhered to his original recommenda-

tion that a local Commission should be appointed,

his idea being to obtain the services of three

unofficial business men, presided over by the

Chief Justice. He made, however, some damaging

admissions which to my mind very much strengthen

the arguments for an independent Commission

advanced in the attached memorandum.

For (1), he thought that there was no

possibility of the Commission being delayed in

their work by not being able to give their whole

time to it since "it would be composed of business

men who would be anxious to get back to their

business". This is exactly what one fears is

likely to give rise to hasty and ill-considered

decisions.

(2) He said also that one of the

advantages of a local Commission would be that the

members serving on it would be already familiar

with local conditions and would no doubt have

their own schemes for tackling them. In illustra-

tion of this point he said that the local Managing

Director of the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank, whom he

hoped to obtain as a member, was very proud of the

scheme that he had worked out for the Bank and was

the

convinced that it would be/most suitable one for

the Colony. This I fear might well be a

disadvantage