HC Deb 07 November 1921 vol 148 cc40-1
74. Lieut.-Colonel HURST

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware that by the revised conditions of service in East Africa civil servants have been promised since April, 1920, salaries on the basis of 10 rupees to the £, plus 50 per cent., and that, owing to the value of-the rupee in Zanzibar being determined by the Indian exchange, civil servants there are only able to remit to England at an exchange materially worse than the rate stabilised in other East African dependencies; and if, in these circumstances, he will grant to civil servants in Zanzibar facilities in this respect equal to those enjoyed by civil servants in such other dependencies?

Mr. WOOD

I have already had under my consideration the position created in Zanzibar through the fall in the exchange value of the Indian rupee, and I decided in August that, as a temporary measure with effect from the 1st January, 1921, the sterling salaries of European officials in Zanzibar should be issued at 15 rupees to the £, without local allowance, but that they should be permitted to make family remittances through the Crown Agents for the Colonies at the rate of 10 rupees to the £ up to half the amounts payable to them locally. This arrangement, in my opinion, sufficiently meets the difficulty mentioned by my hon. and gallant Friend

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