'A Japanese View To the Editor of the "Nonrt-CutNa Dany News" hope that Economy's letter in last Thursday's issue of your Journal, with its illuminating parade of the princely salaries pald to the higher-ups in the Municipal Service. will stimulate the ratepayers to organized insistence on drastic retrenchment in the emoluments disbbursed for Council employees, Tt is only thus that the desired object will bbe achieved, for when has entrenched privilege yielded to the voice of conselenee, or voluntarily surrendered to the dictates of economic exigencies? Even with the staggering totals ro-vealed by Economy, I can assure your readers that the whole tale is not told thereby, Let them study. the Budget for 1030 and they will surely be appalled at the host of additional items like. passages on home leave. exchange compensation, superanntation, medical aid, ete, making an Increase of at least 25° per cent. "Tt was during the period of the present depression, when ruthless curtailing "overhead" in other public and private organizations has" Been the order of the day, that the Council introduced the perquisite Known as exchange compensation." Moreover all during this period salary increases have rolled merrily along' in cynical disregard to the growing municipal penury, T have read and listened to the arguments of those who seek to extenuate the continuance of the status quo in muntelpal emoluments and—in common no doubt with the overwhelming majority of ratepayers =I find these "arguments singularly specious and unconvincing, Com= parisons with municipal income and expenditure and the burden per capita in cities of Europe and America are irrelevant, misleading and even dishonest, as they rests on false promises. Indubltably there was justineation in' the early days of the Settlement for offering stood salaries, home leave with passages paid and numerous other inducements for me fo leave or stay away from_ thei homelands in order to serve the SMC, The Settlement was expanding at a phenomenal rate, bringing in an. abundance of municipal revenue, there was an absence or dearth of aultable "material" locally and. due to the paucity of public and private amenities, Shanghai could be. fairly considered as a place of exile. But o-day all that has changed and it 4s imperative that adjustments should Ye made fo accord with the realities of the present, The time has come When all employees receiving over 8 reasonable compensation (according to present day conditions) from public monies should be given the option of retiring on expiration of their respective letters of appoint-mont or of accepting immediately 8 drastic reduction of salary. All home leave with passages pald the Couineil should be. suspended, except where unusual reasons for ranting it exist. To those who wish {o. make comparisons with other cities T would say "Who ever heard fof municipal employees in cities of the Occident taking junketing trips around the world at the expense of the ratepayers?" Moreover the exchange compensations should be abolished forthwith. No amount of argument can alter the cold fact that business in Shanghai has been rapidly and. progressively declining for a number of years, is now in a parlous slate, with every prospect of growing worse. Other" organizations, both public and private, have tieen obliged to adopt heroic measures. to adjust themselves to the changing conditions, but the Council has not only continued tts high scale of remuneration to its employees, but has further exacerbated public opinion by adding (0 Ils expenditure the burden of the "exchange compensation" and the current Increases in salary. There easily available to the Council a multitude of highly qualified men and Women, Including Chinese, who are able t0 give the Council honest and feMelent service and who would seize with avidity any offer to enter the Council's employ at salaries much below those the present incumbents are receiving, without cavilling at the deletion of the extra "trimmings." Municipal employees, especially the seniors, should therefore be willing to accept with good grace any cuts which maybe prescribed, thanking their lucky stars that they have these many years escaped the rigours of the prevailing depression. One is prompted to ask wHy the Councillors. Including the Chinese members, have allowed this prodigality to go on unchecked during alli these years of "depression, As leaders in commerce fund industry they of course know how deplorable business conditions are in Shanghai and China generally and that all public services, including, treat national services, have imposed Severe cuts on the emoluments of their personnel.
I suggest that the foreign and Chinese ratepayers meet and appoint. fan international commission to. investigate this whole question and to formulate mandatory orders for the Council, designed to remedy matters before the mounting indignation leads to an explosion. I believe most rate-avers are of the opinion that an honest and efficient "administration can be run at a cost far Below that which obtains at present.
Shanghai, May 26,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.