CO129-558-3 Levy on Salaries- petition from Chinese Civil Servants 3-1-1936 - 19-12-1936 — Page 227

17.

225

16)

Development Scheme into which, instead of into Revenue, was paid

the sum of $1,257,500 received for the site of the new offices of

the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation.

This scheme has

been suspended since 1935 though the only object of treating it as

a separate financial entity would appear to be that it should not

be affected by the general condition of the Colony's finances.

As there is no urgent need either for a new Government House

or for the development of the part of the City involved, it is

submitted that the balance of the funds of this scheme should be

transferred to revenue.

15. Your Petitioners respectfully submit that much of the feeling

against the public servants on the part of the Unofficial Members

of Council and a small section of the community, which now, as in

the past, has evidenced itself by a demand for a levy on civil

service salaries, would never have arisen if the size of the

service had been kept within reasonable bounds and might even now

be removed by a reduction in the size of the service.

For at least the last eight years there has been much talk

of retrenchment and in July, 1930, a Retrenchment Commission was

appointed to consider the sufficiency of the then existing staff

and the possibility of reducing the same, the possibility of

extending the method of temporary employment, the sources from

which personnel should be supplied and the possibilities of

economy in the general administration of the Government.

In order to illustrate the position and to show how little

has been effected by way of retrenchment it would seem sufficient

to quote figures recently supplied at the request of an Unofficial

Member of Council and to cite further figures indicating the

strength of staff in one or two offices.

The total number of European civil servants at the end of

1923 was 647, at the end of 1931 it was 923 and at the end of 1935

it was 975.

The strength of the European Senior Clerical and Accounting

staff at the end of 1923 was 21 and at the end of 1931 it had