CO129-602-4 Cost of living allowance 27-3-1948 - 11-12-1948 — Page 75

COST OF LIVING ALLOWANCES FOR

OFFICERS ON LEAVE.

73

؟

(3 ct

52706/14)

ditte)

112.4

ditte)

Before salaries were revised to post war level Colonial

י

Governments, paid cost of living allowance to officers on leave

The payment was a measure of compensation

in this country.

for the general increase in the cost of living in this country

and elsewhere. Palestine, however, where cost of living

allowance was exceptionally high owing to special circumstances,

paid officers on leave half rates of allowance.

When Malaya introduced cost of living allowance the rates

were comparatively high and we recommended that only half rates

should be paid to officers on leave. That course was adopted.

In 1948, the Joint Committee on Cost of Living Allowances

in Malaya made the following recommendation in paragraph 17 of

their Report: -

"At present officers on leave, or sent on duty outside Malaya,

receive only half their cost of living allowance while they are

away. We recommend that they should receive the full allowance.

The full allowance is not sufficient to compensate them for the

higher post war cost of living and should therefore be regarded

as part of their total remuneration and not as an addition payable

only when they are in Malaya."

In a letter commenting on the Report as a whole, the Treasury

made the following reference to the above recommendation

t?

"The proposal seems to me difficult to accept.

Subsequently, to certain criticism of the Report generally, the

Governor telegraphed

"Report of Cost of Living Allowance Committee contains

agreed recommendations arrived at after considerable argument

and with difficulty. They represent compromises accepted by

/representatives