CO129-612-2 Police Department- petition from European memebers of Inspectorate 29-1-1948 - 22-7-1949 — Page 37

(c)

the principle that the new terms must be accepted or refused as a whole. I think we should reply to this point in the terms suggested by the Governor.

the petitioners have by reference to various data attempted to establish that the cost of living in the Colony has risen by at least 400% over 1941 prices and have then endeavoured to prove the inadequacy of the proposed new scales. of pay and allowances by illustrating the %% increase over the 1941 scales. They also claim that the revised scales do not fully compensate for the loss of perquisites such as free quarters, light and fuel and they suggest that certain allowances should be more freely granted.

The first argument is not, I think, a strong one for as the Governor points out, it is admited that in Hong Kong as elsewhere, wages have not kept pace with prices and the present emoluments of the Police Inspectorate, in common with those of other Government servants, do not permit the same standard of living as was obtainable before the war.

This is one of the inevitable economic consequences of the war and the petitioners produce no evidence to show that they are worse off than any other class of government servant. For this reason, the merits of the figures produced by the petitioners are not, I think, of great importance though the Governor has something to say about them. The rise in cost of living for a particular section of the community is necessarily a matter of guesswork and the figure of 400, suggested by the petitioners is not accepted by the Governor. Their calculation of the % increase of emoluments since 1941 is, moreover, erroneous, (though not, I think, for the reasons suggested by the Governor) and the table in enclosure 5 to the despatch gives a more accurate picture. So far as perquisites and allowances are concerned, the petitioners representations are I think answered by the Governor's comments on paragraph 7 of the petition, to which I have nothing to add.

So

However the real point is that the revised scales of basic pay were recommended by the Salaries Commission after careful consideration of all the factors involved and their adequacy in the general context of scales of other classes of government servant is not seriously challenged by the arguments put forward by the petitioners. far as cost of living allowance is concerned, machiner for periodic review has been set up and it should function so as to keep the total emoluments of Government servants fairly adjusted to conditions in the Colony. In fact as a result of recommendations made in the recent Lo Committee Report, very substantial increases in cost of living allowances have now been approved with effect from 1st January, 1949. I think we might reply to this point in the petition as suggested by the Governor, making a brief reference to these recent increases in allowances.

(d)

(a)