CO129-572-4 Provision of free quarters for senior government officers 23-11-1937 - 29-6-1938 — Page 13

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officers and are in fact occupied at present almost

entirely by officers who would not under the new

scales of salary be entitled to free quarters. It

may also be felt that it would be inappropriate to allot

flats as permanent official residences. Of the houses

on the Peak some are very small, while there is

considerable variation in such matters as accessibility

and provision of gardens, tennis courts and garages.

The present practice on the occurrence of a

vacancy in any of the Government quarters is to invite

applications from all officers eligible for them and for

the applications received to be considered by the Senior Officers' Quarters Commitee, a body representative of

the various classes of senior officers. The advice of

that Committee is generally taken but Government of

course reserves the right to disregard such advice if

it is thought desirable to do so. Allotment is normally governed by the seniority of the applicants as shown

by the salaries of their posts but other consider tions,

e.g. size of family and length of service in the Colony,

are allowed for. In ordinary cases the allotment only

extends to the end of the officer's current tour of

service but the most senior officers are given permanent

allotments, i.e. they have the right to return to the

quarters concerned after their leave. The rules for

determining such permanent allotment have varied from

time to time but the present rule is to make such

allotments to all officers with salaries of more than

£1,200 a year.

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The result of this system is naturally that

nearly all the most favoured houses are permanently allotted