CO129-558-3 Levy on Salaries- petition from Chinese Civil Servants 3-1-1936 - 19-12-1936 — Page 127

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8.

The principal factors to be considered and

bearing on the observations in the last paragraph are,

firstly, that the purchasing power of the dollar has

decreased for those who are wholly dependent on this

currency as a source of income and, secondly, that there

is not for them any compensating feature by way of an

increase in the number of dollars received.

9.

Your Petitioners, who believe it is undisputed

that there has been a gradual but marked improvement in the standard of living amongst Chinese generally and especially in the case of clerical and other skilled classes, have experienced increasing difficulty in maintaining such standards with any sense of security.

10:

Practically no advantages accrued from any tem- porary and abnormal rises that have from time to time

occurred in the exchange value of the dollar and even if there had been any advantage, the subsequent fall in the dollar has always involved difficult economic adjust-

ments.

11.

Since July, 1935, however, the problem of your Petitioners has been wholly concerned in meeting

the increase in the cost of the necessities of life.

This is due, primarily, to the lower purchasing value of the dollar but also to the general all round upward trend in the market price of most Chinese and foreign goods. The Government's change of policy in regard to silver, which took effect in November last, marks the commencement of a period when the steepest rise in the price of all commodities, whether Chinese or foreign, was experienced.