3.
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Auditor, Mr. P.L. Collison, 0.B.E., both of whom have had extensive African experience) that a time-scale African officer transferred to a corresponding point on the time-scales now proposed for Hong Kong would find himself worse off here because the expenditure necessary to maintain a suitable social status in Victoria or Kowloon is out of proportion with what is
sufficient on most African Stations. This view fits in with the conclusion at which I myself had already arrived in considering the possibilities of retrenchment, that the present time-scales (if shorn of rent allowances etc., and, in the case of certain scales subject to a lowering of the maximum attainable) represent a not unduly generous scheme of remuneration for senior officers under local conditions. On the other hand I see no reason why their pensionable prospects should be superior to those of their African confrères, and in the accompanying tables the position has been met by the provision of a Residential Allowance to be drawn only in Hong Kong. Although in the tables these proposed Residential Allowances are shewn in sterling at £50, £100 and £150 per annum, in order to facilitate a comparison between present and future emoluments, I suggest that they be in fact dollar allowances at the approximately corresponding rates of $70, $140 and $200 per
mensen.
5.
The general effect of adopting the proposals now put forward would be that a time-scale officer transferred from Hong Kong to Africa, or vice versa, would neither gain nor lose in his capacity for saving or in pensionable prospects. I feel therefore that the main desiderata set forth in paragraph 8(c) of the despatch under reply have been met by the scheme now submitted, which will in time effect a large saving on leave salaries and pensions. The present financial position of the Colony indeed renders some form of retrenchment inevitable.
6.
In adopting the West African time-scale for Administrative Officers, i.e. a scale with efficiency bars only and without promotion barriers, I have not failed duly to consider
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