196
44
Secretary of State for War to refer you to the letter,* from this office, of
the 26th July, Hong Kong
2
on the subject.
1257
I am to state, for the information of Lord Knutsford, that the question of removal of all Admiralty establishments to Kowloon has been referred to the naval anthorities at the station by the Admiralty, and that, as this proposal necessarily has a great effect on the proposition of the Colony of Hong Kong to transfer the military establishment to Causeway Bay, an answer cannot be given to the letter now under reply until the Admiralty shall have received the report before alluded to, and until the War Department shall have been furnished with a concurrent report as to the consequent necessary military arrangements.
CONTRIBUTION.
Sir,
40248
235
237
No. 29.
War Office to Colonial Office.
H. G. DEEDES.
War Office,
With reference to your letter of the 23rd May last, and the reply from
22nd October, 1890. this office of the 14th July, I am directed by the Secretary of State for War to request that you will be good enough to inform him how the question of the increased contribution to be paid by Hong Kong now stands with the Colony.
Mr. Secretary Stanhope is anxious to have this information at an early date, as it affects the account of Army expenditure for the current financial year.
It appears from your letter of the 23rd May, that the full proposed contribution of 40,000%. has been voted for the current calendar year, and it is presumed, after the explanations given in the letter from this office of the 14th July, that the contribution at that rate will be duly paid.
RALPH THOMPSON.
No. 30.
CONTRIBUTION.
Colonial Office to War Office.
Downing Street,
22nd October, 1890.
Sir,
I am directed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to transmit to you, to be laid before Mr. Secretary Stanhope, with reference to the letter‡ from your department of the 14th July, 40248
the paper noted in the subjoined schedule, which relates to the Military Contribution of Hong Kong.
209
ROBERT G. W. HERBERT.
Date,
Description.
10th September
Despatch from Officer Administering the
Government of Hong Kong.
• No. 27.
† No. 24.
‡ No. 26.
45
Enclosure in No. 30.
Acting Governor Fleming to Lord Knutsford.
Government House, Hong Kong.
10th September, 1890.
My Lord,
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's despatch, No. 148, of the 25th of July, transmitting to me copies of the correspondence which has passed between the Colonial Office and the War Department on the subject of the increased Military Contribution by this Colony,
I notice with pleasure the concluding paragraph of Mr. Wingfeld's letter to the War Office of the 23rd of May, in which he states that your Lordship desired him to add that the liberal manner in which the unofficial members of the Legislature met the demands of the Imperial Government enabled a constitutional crisis to be avoided, and that it would be politic, in your Lordship's opinion, to make any concession which might be possible, to meet their views.
I entirely agree with your Lordship that it would have been politic in the circum- stances had the War Office given some consideration to your Lordship's very reasonable suggestion. But far from doing this, they seem to take advantage of the Council's liberality by having recourse to a different line of argument to that conveyed at their dictation in your Lordship's despatch, No. 8, of the 20th of January last.
That despatch, as does the lettert from the War Office of the 14th of July, unquestionably refers to what the garrison in Hong Kong was in 1868, to the amount of contributions then paid, and to the revenue of the Colony in that year, and it then goes on to compare the state of things at that period, with what exists at present. But the real purport of that despatch was to make a demand for a further contribution, on the ground that circumstances rendered it necessary to increase the garrison here.
This is clearly shown in the first paragraph, where your Lordship addresses me on the subject of the additional garrison required "by the fortifications recently erected at Hong Kong and their armament.”
Again, in paragraph 7, your Lordship says "the cost of this garrison (ie., the future garrison) will be about 280,0001, a year, and will consequently be nearly three times as great as was the expense of the garrison in 1863, when the Colonial Contribution was fixed."
In paragraph 19 your Lordship remarks "that the 40,000%, which the Colony will pay in each of the next three years, is only oue-seventh of the cost of the garrison, while the remaining six-sevenths, 240,000l. will still be borne by the mother country.' Could anything be plainer, more particularly from this last-mentioned paragraph, than that the Imperial Government intimated that they intended during these three years to expend 280,0001. per annum on an increased garrison, out of which they requested the Colony to contribute 40,000?
3. But now the War Office takes a different line. The letterf of the 14th of July insinuates that the increased contribution is not asked for so much because we are to have an increased garrison, but because the Colony's revenue has considerably augmented since the year 1863, and because an intention, then announced, to increase the Military Contribution at the end of five years, was never carried out.
These might have been very good reasons for requesting the Colony to increase its contribution, and had they boen straightforwardly and undisgnisedly submitted to the Legislature, I doubt not that the unofficial members would have given them that impartial consideration, which they are at all times prepared to give to proposals emanating from Her Majesty's Government.
But these were not the grounds upon which the Council were asked to vote the additional money. The real reason was, and there can be no attempt to diguise it, that the garrison would be increased during the three years particularly referred to, whereas there seems to be little chance of any substantial increase this year, or indeed within any limited period.
4. I will not further allude to the unfortunate error which was contained in the appendix to your Lordship's despatch, unintentional as it was on your Lordship's part. more than to remark that it was one which not unnaturally tended to mislead the Colony in an important matter of this description.
Whatever may have been decided by the War Office previous to the despatch being written, should have been represented to your Lordship in such unmistakable terms as would have enabled your Lordship to unequivocally state the grounds upon which a considerable demand was to be made upon the tax-payers of this country.
5. I venture to say that by far the best way to avoid a constitutional crisis, or indeed any other Governmental difficulty in this Colony, where I have found the unofficial members of the Council to be gentlemen of shrewd intellect, and possessing no political or partisan desire to oppose a Government measure except on its merits, is for the Imperial Government to submit such measures as may be deemed necessary in
* No. 24.
† No. 26.