CO129-565-14 Vacancy for air raid precaution officer. Includes 1 photograph depicting- Douglas Berwick Maitland- applicant for... 15-11-1937 - 8-2-1938 — Page 18

DESTROYED IN:

Publ

Sec. of State.

Sir C. Parkinson.

Sie C. Poftimes on

18

In connection with the curiosity in certain

quarters of the Press concerning the salaries of

newly appointed officials, on which point you will

recall the S. of S. expressed the wish that I should

try to keep the Press from invidious comment of this

nature, I may mention that last night I was rung up

at home by the Daily Mail, who put two questions

concerning the appointment of Wing-Commander Steele-

Perkins to Hong Kong. Please see the attached

The questions were:-

cutting.

(1)

(2)

what salary was Wing-Commander Steele-

Perkins to receive;

and

was this the beginning of an Empire-wide

scheme of air raid precautions, or in other

words would similar officers be sent to the

other Colonies.

It was easy enough to parry such naif questions, but

the incident certainly confirms the opinion I expressed

in the case of the appointment of Mr. Lindon to

Trinidad that these popular journals almost automati-

cally regard salaries as the first matter of really

"human interest", and it seems to me to be doubtful

whether an attempt to prevail upon them to omit

references to salary would meet with any success.

this particular instance the individual artlessly

confessed that he was quite unable to find any publica-

tion which revealed the salary of a Wing Commander.

What

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