CO129-562-6 Revision of salaries 8-1-1937 - 17-11-1937 — Page 12

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HR. Conf.

192

17.957

(Autmits obgons on the catarie. Serviced for the Administration,

under the general revision

This despatch asks for a revision of the

decisions already reached regarding the revised

scales of salary in Hong Kong. The main points are:-

(1) that senior officers in Hong Kong should

have a prospect of attaining salaries equivalent to

N. P those offered for senior posts in Malaya. The new

super-scale salaries in Hong Kong have been fixed

in relation to the Colonial Service generally, and

not in relation to Malaya, where the general average

of salaries is higher than elsewhere, and I do not

think the decision already reached can now be

changed.

(2) that the existing system of a general

senior grade of Class I Cadets should be continued

in place of the new proposal for definite appointments

to a fixed number of super-scale posts. The 0.A.G.

fears that with some 30 Cadet officers only in

Hong Kong the new proposals may lead to a lack of

N.P. elasticity.

While it appears to me probable that

in the circumstances of Hong Kong the existing

system may have many advantages, I do not see why

the proposal to establish a system of making definite

appointments to super-scale posts need necessarily

lead to lack of elasticity, since I presume that

appointments to these posts, both acting and

substantive, may be varied as is thought desirable

in the interests of the Service as a whole. The

difficulty, and I imagine the real grievance of the

Cadet Service, is that the practice of making

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technical appointments to senior posts will gradually

reduce