ENG-1947 — Page 13

impeded by the same inadequacy of emoluments and such candidates as were forthcoming were often of a much lower standard than before the war. The first step which was taken to apply a remedy to the situation was the appointment of a Committee in August, 1946, to review departmental establish- ments and to make recommendations for readjustments in the rates of the temporary high cost of living and rehabilitation allowances then payable, in cases where the emoluments of any grade or class of Government employees were found to be inadequate to meet the cost of living appropriate to that grade. Certain additional allowances and increases in rent allowance were authorised as a result of the recommendations of this Committee to afford temporary relief but the root trouble remained unalleviated. A Commission was therefore appointed by the Governor under the chairmanship of Mr. D. J. Sloss, C.B.E., Vice Chancellor of the University, to conduct an inquiry with the following terms of reference:

(i) to consider and submit recommendations for the revision of the salaries and emoluments and conditions of service of all public officers in Hong Kong;

(ii) to consider the extent to which the cost of living allowances should be incorporated in basic salary having regard to the fact that stable economic conditions have not yet been re-established;

(iii) to keep in view in framing the recommendations the desirability of reducing the present diversity of salary scales and conditions of service amongst the various grades of the public service;

(iv) to take such action as may be appropriate to ensure that the recommendations of the Hong Kong Salaries Commis- sion will be related to those of the Malayan Commission with a view in particular to facilitating the interchange of officers between Malaya and Hong Kong.

(v) to make recommendations regarding the points of entry for serving officers in any new or revised salary scale; (vi) to have generally in mind the White Paper Colonial No. 197 of 1946 relating to the organisation of the Colonial Service.

On 29th August, 1947, the Report of the Salaries Commission. was submitted to the Government, and shortly afterwards it was forwarded to the Secretary of State for the Colonies for consideration. The ensuing months were occupied in consulta- tions with the Secretary of State, and it was not until the end of the year that information was received that, with certain reservations mainly concerned with expatriation allowances and high cost of living allowances in the higher salaries groups, the general recommendations of the Commission had met with approval. The Report is a massive document, and it would be beyond the compass of this chapter to attempt to give any account of the recommendations contained therein. It is possible to say that generally the approved recommendations of the Commission should afford a considerable degree of relief to public officers, particularly to those in the lower and middle

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