75
Appendix "A".
in collar?
2.14.19.
for the payment of the High Cost of Living Allowance was
not adopted.
The Civil Service accepted uncomplainingly the
decision not to continue to pay the High Cost of Living
Allowance.
In Your Lordship's telegram of the 25th March,
1930, to the Officer Administering the Government you
expressed surprise to learn that in Hong Kong the cost of
living was higher than in 1920. You commented that the
committee gave no evidence of this and you directed that
steps should be taken in the course of the year to compare
carefully the comparative cost in 1920 and 1929, with a
view, if the figures warranted it, of withdrawing or
diminishing the cost of Living Allowance.
In the official "Hong Kong Trade and Shipping
Returns" for February, 1931, there was published, at pages
VIII and IX, a statement showing the index number of
wholesale prices as ascertained by the Statistical Branch of
the Imports and Exports Department.
Petition.
A copy of this publication accompanies this
This statement shows that taking the index number
of the year 1922 as 100 the index number for Foodstuffs had
by July, 1930, reached a figure of 143.6 and had by January,
1931, reached a figure of 144.2.
The index number taken for the average of all
articles had at the dates stated reached figures of 131.0
and 140.2 respectively.
It may thus be accepted that the cost of living had in the eight years ending January, 1931, increased by 40%.
The cost of living is moreover still increasing
considerably from month to month.
2.
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