CO129-601-1 Salaries Commission- currency basis of emolument 9-1-1948 - 5-6-1948 — Page 61

20. 1.48.

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The only other reference to the matter, in papers at present available for the Council's information, is in paragraph 7 of a prin ted conminiostion dated 15th January, 1948, signed by the Establis?ment Offiøer, coyies of which have been distributed to all Officers n he perzinet os tabli, sirması tə This paragraph reads as followe:

" 7.

salaries of all officers electing to

come on to the new conditions of survios will in future be on a Hong Kong dollar b ́sia,

I am to inform you that the Council, after careful consiverstion, is unable to trace any logical osanection between the peasages quoted from the #hite Paper and the proposal that in the future the salaries of all Officers should be computed on a Hong Kong dollar basis. There appears

to be nothing in the Secretary of State's instructions to imply the need for such a readjustzent of the whole basis of the rammeration of considerable and impo tant section of the Service. The passage in the white Paper ce tainly advises that can on scales of remmeration should be introduced for locally recruited and expatriate Officers, and no doubt, for the insediate purpose of the framing of sŭch coa on soiles, it useful to reduce the rates of remawrətion to the terms of a commer currency; but there is e alear distinction between

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(a) prescribing casuan scales applying to two different

groups of officers; and

(b) amending the potential currency value of the

recauneration of a lar;e and important section of

the Service with indefinite and possibly most unfavourable consequences for the Officers concerned.

The Salaries Com:ission, in suknitting their recos en ation, specifically state that they have taken the exchange value of the dəlìar at 1/3d" the present cross rate of the pound sterling. It is within the recɔllection of meny Officers, however, that the value of the dollar in terms of the pound sterling has fluctuated extensively, and although a fərmal stability has been as intained since the Roccupation of the Colmy, the possibility camot be excluded as remote that, in certain circumstances the Hong Kong dəllər might well depreciate in value in terms of the ond sterling.

6.

Such a possibility of the depreciation of the Hong Kong doll - carries with it the following implicɔtions of disadvantage to expatri Officers if their salɛrios are to be converted to dollar basis:

(1) In the case of serving Opicers, in the event of the

dollar falling to, 18y, oreus rate of 30 to the pound, their present ocenitents in the United Kingdom in thʊ way of remittanoss for the maintenance of their familiem, payment of insurance premiums, ano «imilar more or less inflexible obligations, would be ser mush affected. The recommendat ons of the S«leries Cas in regard to the overall imp ovenant of the e- Officers are not so gomerous as to provide any . meet such an unfavourable result of a change in

of the liar. And the dɛlay of more than 18 months has occurred, since the resumption of Civil GovernIERĆ, the upward adjustment of salary scales to meet the struật sinos pre-mr doys in the purchasing power of money not suggest that an early readjustamat of dollar slá could be secured to remove the adverse effects ou in the value of the dollar. The Council conelucht. information at present available, that it is not å interest of serving expatriate Officers to acceșt conversion of their salaries to a dollar basis.

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