CO129-578-2 Revision of salaries for Government employees 4-11-1938 - 12-12-1939 — Page 84

85

real object of the residential allowance

was

system is to fix rates (regardless of

former scales of salary) which would

represent a fair and reasonable addition

to the salaries of officers whilst they

are actually serving in Hong Kong (the

salaries themselves being based on the

West African scales) to compensate them

for the high cost of living in the Colony.

Paragraph 13. I do not feel able to

accept entirely the view of the Anomalies

Committee that the ideal "cost of living"

or "residential" allowances should start

at nil (or some very low figure) and,

rising systematically with salary up to

a maximum, taper off to nothing. For

example, there seems to be little object

in paying any officer a cost of living

allowance of £4 a year as proposed in the

report in certain cases. Again the

proposed scheme seems to me to be open

to serious objection in that after an

officer