From the letter of Lord Kimberley it clearly appears that His Lordship fully admits of the reasonable request that the members of the Roman Catholic Communion in Hongkong should be placed upon equal footing with their fellow subjects and tax-payers of the English Community as regards to assistance from public funds for the maintenance of public worship and we express our best thanks to His Lordship.
The Right Honorable Lord is of opinion that there would be "great practical" difficulty in equalizing the grants as if the grants now made from the Revenue in aid of Religion were doubled by assigning to the Roman Catholic Communion a sum equal to that now given to the Anglican Communion, the total annual amount would be greater than could reasonably be drawn from the Revenue for religious purposes, and therefore he suggests to His Excellency the Governor's consideration the proposal of discontinuing all building grants and making all annual allowances whatever for ecclesiastical purposes cease in future, as the present recipients die out.
Although we are of opinion that considering the very flourishing financial...
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