CO129-558-3 Levy on Salaries- petition from Chinese Civil Servants 3-1-1936 - 19-12-1936 — Page 32

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In this petition, to which about two-thirds

of the total sterling salaried staff in the Hong Kong

Government have subscribed, the protest against the

Secretary of State's decision to approve the

imposition of a temporary levy on salaries is based

under the following main heads, viz:-

>

(1) The sterling officers suffered a

substantial levy on their salaries in 1931, which was

proved to be an unnecessary sacrifice on their part

and the money so saved at their expense was

regarded as a windfall to be dissipated on Public

Works Extraordinary.

(2) No additional taxation has been

simultaneously placed on the general public in a

Colony which is extremely lightly taxed and well

able to bear increased taxation.

(3)

There are surplus funds available to the

Government for tiding over the budgetary difficulty

which is the excuse for the present levy.

(4) Little has been effected by way of

retrenchment of expenditure on Government establish-

ments; substantial reductions in staff could be

made without impairing the effectiveness of the

Service, and a scheme of voluntary retirement with

pension should be introduced for officers with not

less than 10 years' service.

(5) The present scheme of levy hits especially

officers who have to make remittances to England,

since their sterling salaries are paid in Hong Kong

of

at the purely artificial rate at $1 = ls. 6d., but

when they have to remit monies home they can only do

so at the current rate of exchange, viz., $1 = ls. 34d.

(6) The levy amounts to discriminatory

taxation on one small section of the community in

the