Feb. 21.
With commendable celerity the Special Commitice of Exchange Adjustments and Bonuses, appointed by the Municipal Council to consider the matters raised by the Council's own adjustments of the pay of its employees has made its report, and the Council at its meeting on Saturday last very properly the Special Committee is to be congratulated upon devising a system whereby amore satisfactory degree of equity becomes appar ent in the methods by which the municipal servants are remunerated. In its. findings and recommendations the Special Committee makes it quite clear that the Court had departed from the principles laid down in the Staff Economy " Committee's report in relation to the exchange compensation allow-fed {0 heads of senior departments and the Gepulies to heads of senior departments and heads of junior departments, That report it concludes should have been adhered to, while at the same time the Council should have lived up to any promises that it may have made 10 its staff. In effect what the 'Special Committee has' done is this: it has taken some $111,000 which under the Coun~ cil's scheme would have gone to the heads of Departments and other seniors, and mak ing it up to $130,000 has done hotier justice {9 the remainder of the Class "A" employees. A glance at the figures relating to the proposed payment to heads of senior departments Indicates that the Special Committee has resorted to something in the nature of a compromise which at the same time reaffirms the old principles under which the municipal service Was paid. In the circumstances this appears to have been the wisest course to follow and should tend to allay much of the criticism which was levelled against the Council's scheme.
Complete adherence to principle, however, has not been effected for the Special Committee, with reference to the combined post of Secretary General and Secretary, which comes into being on July 1, 1939, expresses! the opinion that considering' the responsibilities attaching to the post, and the qualifica us of the person holding it, the salary of 122,500 per annum is not excessive. Roughly speaking the Special Committee appears to have followed common sense lines in dealing with this very difficult question. It estimates that a Class "A" employee spends two-thirds fof his or her salary in Shanghai, while the remainder represents either savings or the proportion of normal gold commitments which or she might reasonably be expected to make or meet. On the two-thirds, a tem~ porary bonus is granted to meet the extra Cost of living, while with regard to the bal~ ance exchange adjustment should make the employee whole so far as either commitments or savings are concerned. It seems in the circumstances the only fair method of meeting what it is to be hoped is merely a temporary difficulty, and, as it has nothing about it of the qualities of permanency, the burden which the ratepayer has to bear' will vary with the exchange position. It can only be hoped that that will ultimately Improve such an extent that this seven lakhs addi tion to the salaries bill will eventually be wiped out. What is of the utmost importance to Shanghai, however, is that its municipal servants shall be paid in the currency of its revenue. That "is the principle which should always be recognized, though in circumstances such as these adjustments. when ther by exchange or by temporary bonuses are necessary if the service is to remain con= tented, and attractive to the type of person it is necessary to employ.
The Special Committee makes no finding 8 {0 the ability of the Council to pay the extra sum their recommendations involve, Judging from the figures representing actual income and expenditure for 1937, in. which year the latter exceeded the former by some $2,500,000 it would seem that the Council will in all probability not have enough funds to meet the extra charge. The Special Com= mittee does not say so, though it is possible that with increased actual revenue for 1938, and an expenditure which is not yet known the Council may be in a position to finance these temporary bonuses and exchange adjustments without appealing to the ratepayers. TI is devoutly to be hoped that this is the case, for the present is most certainly not the time for such an appeal to be made. The Council need take no flattering unction to itself that, because the new scheme is a fle more costly than its own, it is neces sarily justified by the finding of the Special Committee. Indeed its orities have been completely vindicated in many. of the strietures which they passed upon it, more partiularly. by the reversion' to old principles which ought never to have been departed from, It will probably by now have realized that much of the criticism which was voiced was aroused by the cryptic terms in which it announced its intentions in the notiieation of December 30. It was not until some days after publication that whispers became current as to what that" notification volved, and public feeling was greatly exacerbated by the suspicion that—the esoteric wording was designed to keep the facts from the ratepayers. It is not suggested for one moment that this was in ports live boon received of successful Chinese Fad on Minghong, anda lors success aac in te nelghvourhiod of Kiangwan, Neither of these reports could be confirmed, and they may have been the inventions of, rumour-mongers who take every opportunity Yo one from tense stualon, "Brere io. hotier support. for the report of an attack made'on 'Thureday' night carly "Friday. morning in the. Hangioo ren, as foreign residents were awalsened: more than' once during the night by the alp of pules past their Svindows." None of these three elds Ean be called of miliary. Importance, except for the psychological effect they must have Upon {naividuet Japanese troops. in the raid in the Kisnawan area itis reported that the Japanese lit the gucrias into two, parts, and drove one Dart back upon Chapel, 'This. would. account for the sounds of rife fre' heard by many reridonts coming from somewhere in that dic. tion." 'The value of these. spanmodie attacks by. auerilias "upon" an internationalyspopulaied fea' can be doubted, except. insofar as. they ay foster the confidence of Chinese in danger for wavering in their afegiance. Tu the mean~ {ime it must be inevitable that the. deprivations suffered' bythe peasants and. farmers round Shanghai of the bands of the guerilis wil have harmful eflect=perbaps harmful enough Take the raids a definite disservice to. the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.