It was feared that when, because of exceptional circumstances, as it Was explained at the time, Mr. G. Godfrey Phillips, Secretary and Commissioner General, was given his remuneration at the fixed sum of £2,500 per annum that this would be the thin edge of the wedge, and a very innocuous announcement which appeared in the press yesterday morning justifies the original suspicion. It was there stated that in order to retain the. services of Mr. R. T. Bryan, jr, Munit cipal Advocate, the Municipal Council had agreed to pay him a salary of U.S.$7,500 per annum. Thus the second municipal employee passes from a salary expressed, and paid in terms of the currency in which the Municipal Council obtains its revenue to a foreign currency. The experience of the past few years suggests that whenever the Council thinks it is doing something which may be open to criticism, the announcement of the fait accompli is rendered as innocent looking as possible, and while the Council indulged in a lengthy statement regarding the increase in the tempora ary high cost of living allowance,—which was quite unnecessary in view of the fact that it was justified by conditions prevailing,—the change in Mr. Bryan's remuneration has apparently been announced in the baldest possible terms, possibly with the hope that thereby it would escape notice. It has not. The sum of U.S.$7,500 at 17.77 amounts to C$133,275 per annum equivalent to C$11,106 per mensem, which represents in sterling a yearly remuneration of £2,300. When considering that figure of C$133,275 it is interesting to compare it with the estimates for the current year for the Legal Department of the Council It is impossible to extract the figures from the Budget in the clearest possible manner, but it may be said that out of a total estimate of $212,275 the Municipal Advócate drew $37,150 and the appropriate proportion of $28,730 representing Repatriation Exchange Allowance and Temporary Bonus, in which his secretary drawing $3,800 per annum also had her share. Obviously her share would not be very great, so it may be taken for granted that Mr. Bryan was not doing so very badly.
At a very rough calculation and taking into consideration the ratio between the salary of the Municipal Advocate and his secretary it would seem that out of that $28,730 the former drew somewhere in the neighbourhood of $25,000, so that up to the time of the announced change his total income from the Council was approximately $60,000. The remuneration, and there is nothing temporary about this, has now been more than doubled, and in order to retain Mr. Bryan's services the ratepayers are called upon to pay him somewhere about $70,000 per annum more. Those appear to be the facts as far as anyone unable to explore the secrets of the municipal arcana can see them. In what has to be said there is no criticism whatever of Mr.
Bryan. He has rendered excellent service to the municipality for a number of years and of his high qualifications, his knowledge of Chinese law, and language, and his ability there cannot be the slightest doubt. But it is doubtful in the extreme whether, in view of all the circumstances, the community can really afford the services of so eminent a lawyer. It is permissible to ask how many practising lawyers in Shanghai at the moment, providing their own offices and office staff, are earning anything like such a sum. The council in the communique on the sub: ject of the temporary high cost of living allowance made the remark that no man was indispensible, but it would appear that Mr. Bryan is another exception to the.rule, and that in the course of time a few others will be discovered. The ratepayers who have been assured that the Council will protect their interests by taking care to see that every economy is made will naturally wonder just where all this is going to stop. Continual reference to the salaries given by certain large undertakings in Shanghai carries not the slightest conviction. It has to be remembered that most of them are but branches of worldwide organizations earning their money in currencies which have not suffered in the same way as that of China has. It is not necessary to mention any of them by name, but a moment's reflection will show that this is the case. Those firms are not dependent upon China for the whole of their business, and because of that they can afford to pay in other currencies than that of China to the local benefit of those stationed in this country.
That is most certainly not the case of the Shanghai Municipal Council. Its revenues are in the currency of the country. But there is another aspect of the matter which must be dealt with and that is the general effect this must have upon the rest of the municipal service. It is only human that other municipal employees seeing now a second of their number fully protected against the fluctuations of exchange, will regard what has been done for them with very considerable misgiving. They will naturally ask, if some of us can be paid in more stable currency than the Chinese dollar why cannot we all? Why make fish of one and fowl of the other The answer surely cannot be because the Council's revenue is in Chinese currency, for the Council cannot have it both ways at once. And another question arises. Wher is this going to stop? Are the ratepayers eventually to see every head of department being paid in either sterling or American dollars? If not why should there be any discrimination between department and department? Mr. Bryan was in practice before he joined the Council. He was in fact a locally engaged man and with every wish in the world to do the Council justice it is difficult to see any parallel between the case of the Secretary-General and that of the Municipal Advocate, It is necessary to remind the Council that but for the promise that it would exercise every economy, and appoint a committee to see that this was done, very considerable opposition would have been manifested at the ratepayers' meeting to passage of the Budget. That opposition was withdrawn on a compromise, but the Council appears to be reverting to its old courses. If it finds that by its latest action very considerable indignation is manifested it will have only itself to blame. It is with very considerable regret that these things have to be written, but it is surely time that the Council took stock of the situation and realized that such things as these, taken so shortly after promises of reform, cannot but raise the profoundest suspicion that the ratepayers' interests are not being properly safeguarded.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.