CO129-595-2 Financial compensation for married officers whose families were evacuated in 1940-1 21-2-1946 - 31-1-1947 — Page 9

9

hardships amongol

I agree with Mr. North in disliking the suggestion that any adjustment should be made in the 10% deduction from accrued pay in view of the grounds on which the 10% was first decided upon and the fact that we shall have to defend the decision to make a deduction on the same grounds. Protests are being received from Colonial Government officials on this question.

In Malaya there was no compulsory evacuation scheme but, of course, the same point would arise in the case of any Government official whose family was not with him in Malaya at the time of the Japanese occupation. Malayan salary scales are admittedly higher than Hong Kong scales and also children's allowances are payable. There should not, therefore, be so many cases of Malayan officials as there is

age of Hong Kong officials, although, of course, there are bound to be some hard cases.

Any concession could presumably only be justified where there was generally some hardship involved in the separation of families rather than on the grounds that some people have come off better than others in respect of their pay during internment. If, there- fore, any concession were granted I feel it could only be somewhat on the following lines:

(a)

of he had bear

-

Any allowances should be restricted to officers whose average salary during the 3 years from January, 1942 to 30th June, 1945 (an arbitrary period must be taken) was less than £1,000 per annum and should not result in the officer receiving total more than

1,000 for that periody after making the "10%" deduction.

in weeyor of a salary of

(c)

(a)

(e)

pa.

The allowances should be on the basis laid down in No. (6) of this file;

Where children's allowances are payable as in Malaya, (b) should not be paid in addition, but either (b) or the children's allowance should be paid whichever is the greater;

To apply

The ancession to

copy to all Cases where the officer was interned and his dependants were outside the territory irrespective of whether they were outside the territory under the compulsory evacuation scheme or not;

Presumably, in a case where the wife was able to earn some pay whilst working the amount would have to be ignored;

In considering the above proposal it must be borne in mind;

(1)

(11)

that, in fact, neither Mr. Calthrop nor Mr. Cruttwell will benefit thereby as their pay appears to be in excess of £1,000 per annum;

Treasury authority will be required and it is difficult to imagine that the Treasury will agree to what amounts to the issue of more than full pay during the period of internment, bearing in mind the correspondence we had with them on the subject of the 10% deduction;

(iii)

Page

Page

The cost wa

Therefore changed

to

U.K. funds.

(iii)

(iv)

it was not possible to charge the cost of the evacuation scheme to Hong Kong Government funds owing to the Chinese opposition, they contending that the scheme was

for the benefit of

Europeans I should have thought that the Governor would experience great difficulty in securing the Legislative Council's approval of any concession to Government officials who had been in receipt of.full pay in respect of the period of internment, as it will be the European officials in general who will benefit by any such concession;

the case for a similar concession will have to be put to the Malayan Government and, possibly, to the four Borneo

Governments.

are

To sum up, whilst admitting that some officers were better off than others financially as a result of internment, it hardly seems possible to balance all the advantages and disadvantages and to secure equitable

absolukly state treatment for all.

equal

9.10.46.

几

Mo Pabner, in his second paragraph, has ans- wered the paint on which the file

to me.

3

was

referved

agree generally with his views, but

you shd. see

$

10.

B.T. Bourdika "Tho.

I am

If we could limit this matter to the actual proposal put forward from Hong Kong in No. 5 we could, I think, leave Malaya out of it, since there was no compulsory evacuation scheme in operation there on the lines of the one in Hong Kong. however inclined to agree with Mr. Palmer that it would be difficult to restrict the alleviation of the hardship involved to the cases submitted by the Governor of Hong Kong. On the other hand my own view is that it would be extremely difficult to defend the extention of this alleviation on the lines suggested by Mr. Palmer and we could not do so without consulting Malaya as well as Hong Kong.

One of the difficulties or granting this relief on the lines suggested is that there is already a good deal of bitterness on the part of non-officials who were interned at the generous treatment which has been accorded to Government officials.

Moreover, as Mr. Palmer ha pointed out if a scheme on the lines which he has suggested were

/adopted

age 10

age 10Page 11