CO129-533-13 Salaries- conversion rate of sterling 30-1-1931 - 21-1-1932 — Page 335

Enclasme No 2

462

Secretariat for Chinese Affairs.

Hong Kong. 24th January, 1931.

sir,

With reference to the petition now in course

of preparation and intended to be submitted by the Civil

Servants of Hong Kong for the consideration of His

Excellency the Governor, I have the honour to submit

also, to be read in conjunction therewith, but as in no way dependent on it, (as the following views are my own and put forward on my own responsibility), some

suggestions as to alternatives to the course against

which the signatories petition. I do not yet know

exactly what form the proposed petition may take, and

it is possible that some points may be duplicated;

nevertheless it seems necessary when a protest is lodged

against one way of balancing a Colony's budget to put

forward alternatives which in my view, and possibly in

those of many others of the petitioners, are equally

efficacious and more just.

2. To clear the way or possible general objections,

I shall state in the first place that I claim for Civil

Servants no immunity from disasters of a financial nature

which over take the Colony in which they work.

When

a general disaster threatens they must take their chance

equally with their fellow citizens; this with the quali-

-fication which follows from a consideration of their

different position. The Civil Servant, and especially

he who is not in some way a technically qualified man,

has bartered his liberty and his chance of making a

fortune and accepted in exchange a security from fluctua-

-tion in his position. When the Colony prospers he