§ SIR WILLIAM WEDDERBURN (Banffshire)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in view of the fact that the salaries of the European officials in Ceylon, Singapore, and Hong Kong are paid in silver currency, will he state whether any compensation allowance has been granted to them for the depreciation of silver, as has been granted by the Government of India to its European employés?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Mr. J. CHAMBERLAIN) Birmingham, W.European officials in Ceylon are at present paid half their salaries at 1s. 6d. the rupee, and in Straits Settlements and Hong Kong at 3s. to the dollar.
§ SIR WILLIAM WEDDERBURNI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether the Comptroller and Auditor General to the Government of India raised any objection to the payment of compensation allowance to the 40 Indian officials whose salaries are by statute fixed in rupees; and whether he took any stops to stop these payments and surcharge the officers concerned; if so, upon what grounds have these payments been continued for nearly four years?
§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONDoubts as to the technical legality of the payment of exchange compensation allowance to the officers whose salaries are fixed under statute in rupees were raised, not by the Comptroller and Auditor General himself, but on two separate occasions by two of his accounting officers. The result of the doubts thus raised was a reference by the Government of India to the Secretary of State in Council; and as I have already informed the hon. Member, the matter is still under my consideration, with a view to the procuring of further legal opinions. The payments have hitherto been made in India under the impression, confirmed by legal advice, that they were not only equitable but legal, and until the question is finally decided it is obvious that no steps of any kind can be taken.