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I consider the Registrar of the Supreme Court is a post which is over-rated (I mean no criticism of the present incumbent) and would be more appropriate at the same level as District Court Judge.
I consider the Registrar General is appropriately placed
at the same level as the Law Officers.
The Service Generally
It seems to me that for the reasons given above, in the future it will be necessary for Hong Kong to attract into the public service at least some men from the private sector. Moreover it is my opinion that in many posts (legal, banking, finance, engineering etc.) it is of great benefit to the public servant to have had experience in the private sector (and vice- versa). I believe that in Hong Kong the future, whether one wishes it or not, is likely to follow the American model where a man during his career may spend time not merely in the public service but also in the academic and private sectors. It also seems to me that at present salary levels it would be almost impossible to be sure of attracting men of the required ability and experience even to the critical top posts from the private sector. This is a question both of salaries and conditions of service. Speaking personally by way of example, it would not be possible to justify to myself for too long the considerable diminution of earnings (even after tax) compared with my previous U.K. earnings, despite the interest to me of the work I do. Nor could I foresee (were it ever required to do so) a Financial Secretary with the high abilities of the present incumbent being attracted from a comparable position in the private sector by his present salary and conditions. The more so when one has regard to some of the other factors - for instance (to take small things not by way of complaint but for example) it seems wrong to me, bearing in mind muchof the hospitality I receive arisės purely out of my job, that, happy though I am to do so, I should have to subsidise Government to a considerable extent when repaying it; or that when I stayed, on appointment, in the same hotel as my clients had paid for me to stay in when working here before, that the lodging allowance should not even cover the room charges.
What is true at the highest levels is the more so at the critical upper-middle levels of management where in fact it would be most advantageous and perhaps necessary to introduce people, for it is difficult indeed to accommodate to a civil service even in a technical area when one is appointed at the top.
I believe therefore that (a) an increase in salaries at the upper-middle and upper levels is not only justified but will prove necessary and (b) that there should be some widening of the differentials to the benefit of the upper posts, commencing, say, at the D3 level.
Tom Griffittes
(John Griffiths Q.C.)
Attorney General
27. 2. 80.
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