CO129-600-2 Salaries Commission- proposed Public Services Commission 20-1-1948 - 1-3-1948 — Page 13

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I am afraid that I have kept this file for some little time for the reason that I am not at all happy about the doctrine, in para. 4 of the Governor's despatch at No. 6, which it is proposed to endorse in para. 2 of the draft, which seems to me to be riding the principles of Colonial No. 197 to an untenable conclusion in their application to Hong Kong. I do not at all quarrel with the principle that all vacancies in the technical, professional or clerical services should be first referred to a Public Services Commission, and should only be referred home if no suitable local candidates are found for them. But it seems to me that, in a Colony like Hong Kong, this would be dangerous doctrine to apply to the Administrative Service.

a real In respect of a Colony which has /prospect

re/pr of becoming a self-governing entity, the principles of Colonial No. 197 apply to the Administrative Service as well as to the technical and professional services. But Hong Kong has no such prospect. Unless at some future date, it is/absorbed into Chine, its only prospect of remaining a separate entity would lie in maintain- ing a strong British administration there. And by "British administration", I mean administration in which all the key "administrative" posts are filled by Europeans. This is not the place to speculate as to what the future political develop- ment in Hong Kong may be but I do not think that Hong Kong could survive as an entity even under a diar chical form of Government such as at present exists in Malta, with only an exceedingly small nucleus of "Imperial" British officers. I do not exclude the possibility of suitably qualified Chinese British subjects being admitted to the Hong Kong Administrative Service, but I do think the days of British administration in Hong Kong would be numbered if there were more than a small levening of Chinese in the Administrative service.

If the Governor's thesis that all vacancies in the Public Service of Hong Kong should be first

there referred to the Public Services Commission would be no guarantee that suitable local Chinese candidates for the Administrative Service would not be forthcoming. They would not have to stand

/ competition

were accepted