Hong Kong should be required to pay according to the distance over which its Mails are carried. It is clear that the Packet Company has to be paid for the length of the Sea Service; and the burden must either be shared by the Colony as proposed or continue to be borne as it has been for many years past by the
6. Mother Country
As to the arrears now amount to about £30,000, I apprehend that the Colony is accountable for the delay which has occurred in settling the question, for the intention to prefer a claim was mooted as long ago as 1874, and revived in 1880 on the conclusion of the New Contract with the Peninsular & Oriental Company.
In the 26th of June 1880, the Colonial Office informed Your Lordships that Lord Kimberley was prepared to admit the justice of the principle that the total amount of loss should be shared in equal proportions between this Country and the Colonies concerned, which he regretted that this principle was not laid down and insisted upon at an earlier period - the Correspondence of 1874 having apparently been lost sight of.
As to the principle on which the assessment had been made, it appears to be unassailable, the calculation being based upon the number of letters and the distance over which they are carried, and Your Lordships have already been pleased to state that you are unable...