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MUI-TSAI LEGISLATION
Hon. Mr. M. K. Lo has also oned the question of Mul- tsai legislation. The Petition to which he refers, supporting in the main the recommendations of the Minority, Report of the 1936 Com- mission, was sent to the Secretary of State for the Colonies the mo- ment it was received by the Gov- ernment a few weeks ago.
Honourable members
are
also aware of the provision made made in the Bill now before the Council for strengthening the Chinese Secretariat. Bevond this it would. I fear, be premature to make any public announcement on the sub- ject of the Commission, except to I say that both the Majority and the
Minority Reports have months ago received the most careful and detailed consideration not only of my Executive Council but also of the District Watch Committee, the body which is rightly held to be representative of the most enlightened Chinese opinion in the Colony.
some
The fruits of those investigations have been transmitted to the Secretary of State but it would not be proper for me to say more to-day on a matter which may well be the subject of debate at West- minster in the near future.
RENT RESTRICTION "Artificial Interference Must Be Avoided."
As regards the Hon. Mr. M. K. Lo's proposal that new legislation should be introduced to restrict rents I think it will be agreed that any such artificial interfer- ence with normal economic pro- cesses is a thing to be avoided as far as may be possible.
Most of us remember the 1922 was, for precedent when there various reasons, a serious short- age of housing accommodation for which might be considered the normal population of the Colony. Six months ago it would have been generally agreed that the Colony was if anything overbuilt so far as it is possible to say that any population figure can properly be described as "normal.”
MERELY TEMPORARY? To-day we have many thousand more mouths to fill and many thousand more bodies to accom- modate,
be and it is hardly to thought that either food prices or | rents will remain where they were. From the point of view of the permament resident it is to be hoped that the existing state of affairs is a merely temporary one, although I think that no one will wish for a return of the days of empty tenements which we all deplored as the fruit of the trade depression of the last few years.
If this is true it would almost seem more equitable to fix, as a standard for fair rent, some "pre- depression" date rather than 31st July, 1937; but speculations of this kind immediately show the inherent difficulties of such legis- lation.
I cannot personally think that circumstances as yet call for any such drastic action as rent control, and I certainly hope that the twelve-month period which Mr. Lo envisages for such control is far too long for the existing emergency to last.
PRISON LIFE
Problem Now Being Thoroughly Investigated
The Senior Unofficial Member of the spoke of the ill effect amenities offered in our new Pri- son upon our criminal or poten- tially criminal classes. I hesitate to say more on this subject than that the very disquieting increase in the number of prisoners housed at Stanley has lately been under very active scrutiny.
My hesitation is based on the fact that it may well be that some of the aspects of that in- quiry, such for example as prison dietary, police methods, and the penal system of South China (to mention only a few), may prove to be of a kind that should not be published abroad in the form of a Sessional Paper.
I trust that the Council will be content with the assurance that the matter is being thoroughly in- vestigated and that they will be kept fully informed of any prac- tical recommendations which may ensue from that investigation.
STERLING SALARIES
The Hon. Sir Henry Pollock has also raised once again the question of sterling salaries and of the rentals paid by Government ser- vants. As regards salaries, the figures which have been given at an earlier stage of this meeting may at first sight seem to fortify the argument which Sir Henry adduced week
a
ago, but that argument is not difficult to an- swer. In the first place the so- called "Gollan scale" included, in addition to the actual salaries, a very considerable high cost of living allowance on the assump- tion of a dollar exchange of about 2/-.
That allowance was, as will be recollected, never in fact drawn by officers in view of the serious fall in the dollar rate before the scales recommended could be implement- ed. To be strictly logical the gulf between the 2/- figure and the 1/3 figure which you have just heard should have been reduced by in- cluding the amount of that allow-
1
ance in the former if a compari- son was desired between "Gollan scale" and present day salaries.
"AFRICAN SCALES”
Secondly it is not quite fair to think entirely in terms of local currency in this matter. Certain local expenses may have remained almost unaffected, but imported goods and, still more, the definite home commitments of most ster- ling-paid officers must always be thought of in terms of sterling. And thirdly the gradual adoption of the so-called “African scales," both for new appointments and in cases of promotion, examples of which are for the first time to be found in many pages of the Bud- get now under discussion, is a suf- ficient indication of the Govern- ment's determination, now that the sterling value of the dollar can be foretold with greater ac- curacy than in past years, that its sterling salaries shall accord with what is considered to be a fair and
emolument in the proper Colony Empire as a whole.
RENTS QUESTION Committee May Be Appointed To Study Question
As regards rents paid by Gov- ernment servants for their quar- ters I feel sure that our new Gov- ernor will readily agree to the appointment of a small committee to investigate this matter, as Sir Henry has proposed, if a substan- tive motion to that effect is in due course put before this Council.
But it is justifiable to point out that the new salary scales to which I have just referred call for the payment of a so-called "economic rent" to be assessed for each set of quarters with a maximum contribution of 15 per cent. of salary.
It should also be remarked that the provision of quarters, whether free or at a conventional rental, is and will continue to be here as elsewhere an integral part of the I should salary scales offered. doubt if there is any important Colony which offers an “all-in" salary and expects its public ser- vants to fend for themselves in the way of quarters.
EVENTS IN SOUTH CHINA It would, gentlemen, as has been remarked, savour of unreality if to-day's debate were to take no notice of anything except the Revenue and Expenditure for 1938. From the very outset of the de- plorable troubles of the past few months there was one thing that seemed obvious to me, namely, that the problems which at such a time as this beset this Colony in its unique position at the gateway of
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