CO129-525-3 Estimates 1931 and other financial papers 16-1-1930 - 1-9-1932 — Page 32

32

The principles governing the alteration of

salaries are well established. At the one pole we

have substantive salaries which constitute a definite

bargain between the Crown and its servants and must

be regarded as something that cannot be touched

without a breach of that contract. There are only

two precedents for reduction of substantive

salaries Fiji, and St.Helena. In both cases the

need was desperate, but even so it was considered

(I believe on the 1,, 0. advice in the Fiji case)

that no alteration of a substantive salary could be

made except by scheduling the reduced salary to

the Appropriation Ordinance and so giving the

transaction the sanction of positive enactment.

At the other pole we have various

temporary allowances designed to cover certain

expenses that may, and often do,vary as circumstances

travelling allowances, mileage for cars,

alter

etc. etc. It has been contended that such an

allowance once granted becomes as sacro sanct as

substantive salary. But this is absurd, and I think

it is well established that allowances of this

description are liable to be varied without any

breach of the contract between the Crown and its

servant s.

The real question here is to which of the

two opposite poles the Hong Kong arrangements for

conversion of sterling salaries into dollars more

nearly approximates.

It seems clear that an

arrangement which of its essence depends on such a

fluctuating basis as the dollar exchange, and which

as