CO129-601-1 Salaries Commission- currency basis of emolument 9-1-1948 - 5-6-1948 — Page 34

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4. Our proposal, then, is that the fixed rate

for which certain officers would be allowed to opt

would only be reviewed in the event of a devaluation

in the dollar resulting in an increase in salaries.

We feel that such a safeguard is necessary in order

to protect Hong Kong funds; but unless such an

increase in salary were to take place, it is our

proposal that the fixed rate should remain fixed.

We must maintain firmly our view that an option of

this nature must be offered in the case of officers

already in the Service. Some of these officers

are already approaching retiring age, and they have

spent their lives in the Service of the Colony on

the firm and hitherto justified assumption that they

were assured of sterling pensions at certain rates.

In the case of new entrants no such assumption

would be justified, but in the case of these serving

officers, notwithstanding the objects of an official

rate as described in Bancroft's third paragraph,

any undermining of the assumption at this stage would

be adtest tantamount to a breach of faith. The

Governor has told us that there is strong feeling

amongst officers on this point, and that unless the

option is given there may be considerable difficulty

in getting the new terms accepted as a whole.

S. In the 2nd paragraph of his letter, Bancroft

refers to the precedent which other Colonies might

wish to follow. It is this passage of his letter,

more than anything else, which leads us to feel that

he may have exaggerated the scope of the option

proposal. This proposal applies to a limited class

of officers in a very special circumstance (the

computing of pensions on a non-sterling as opposed to a sterling basis as one of the features of a

general/