CO129-533-13 Salaries- conversion rate of sterling 30-1-1931 - 21-1-1932 — Page 276

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HONG KONG JONVERSION OF STERLING SALARIES.

Before the 1919 Salaries Commission all

sterling salaries were fixed at a 2s/- dollar for

the conversion of sterling into dollars, but this simple arrangement proved untenable in 1920 in

how was comparison with the provisions of the Exchange Compensation Scheme of 80 per cent at 1s/9d and 20 per

cent at the average current rate of exchange, owing to

the rapid fall in the value of the dollar which took

place shortly after the revised salaries came into

force. A sliding scale therefore was introduced

under which an officer was paid at the rate of 10

dollars to each £. when the dollar was at, or over,

4s/4d, and 12 dollars to the £. when the dollar was

at 2s/6d or under. There were other rates at inter-

mediate values of the dollar.

After this sliding scale was brought into

operation, the cost of local living continued to

increase and in July, 1928, the Government made a

further allowance to officers of 2 per cent of the

dollar equivalent of their sterling salaries if

married, and of 1 per cent if unmarried for every ld that

the value of the dollar that was below 2s/6d up

to a maximum of 18 per cent, or 9 per cent, as the

case might be.

The recent Salaries Commission appointed

in 1928 recommended new scales of sterling salaries

representing in general an increase of 15 per cent,

and proposed that they should be converted into

dollars at the average opening public demand rate

of