70
46
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Such a measure would no doubt meet with as much opposition here at first as it did originally in the Straits' Settlements, but it was soon found there that the tax did not interfere with or obstruct the course of business more than was originally anticipated.
I have therefore to ask, (1) that copies of Acts or Ordinances passed for raising money by town debentures in other Colonies may be supplied to me, so that I may have some information to guide me as to the course pursued in other places, in case it should be determined to borrow here; and that I may be informed whether Her Majesty's Government would object to a stamp tax here, in case it should be the desire of the local legislature to impose it.
I ask this question because, as this is the centre at which all the financial transactions for the Imperial Military, Naval, Consular and Diplomatic Services throughout China and Japan are arranged, a share of such tax, if once imposed, would