CO129-563-4 Cost of living bonus paid to locally employed staff by the Admiralty 10-7-1937 - 23-7-1937 — Page 7

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ADMIRALTY.

7

The Admiralty are unable to accept the budgets for

local clerks recently forwarded, as they are not satisfied

that they reflect with reasonable accuracy the conditions

actually obtaining. The local clerks should be required to

submit a fresh budget in which the food prices quoted should

be those ruling in the stores, markets, etc. where they

actually obtain their supplies, the items and quantities

of food being revised to represent as closely as possible

the normal average food consumption of the family of a local

clerk consisting of two adults and two children.

Expenditure

on items other than food should be that appropriate to the

average locally entered Dockyard clerk.

The Admiralty desire to obtain the views on this

revised budget of an independent authority fully conversant

with local conditions. The Secretary for Chinese Affairs

should accordingly be approached as to whether his department

would be willing to assist in this matter by examining the

budget with particular reference to the following points:-

(1) Whether the quantities and prices of the various

items of foodstuffs quoted are reasonable.

(2) Whether the budget as a whole provides for a

reasonable standard of living and, if not, in what particulars it is deficient or excessive.

The whole of the correspondence should be forwarded to the

Admiralty.

Endeavour should be made to obtain particulars of

the grades and scales of pay of locally entered clerks employed

by the Colonial Government together with the approximate

numbers now borne in each of the various grades.

In addition any available authoritative statistics

on the subject of the general trend of the cost of living and

food prices during the past four years should be forwarded,

local