the present crisis supports a view that is not favourable to any extensive constitutional changes, but that hereafter, when such Public Works as are in hand may be completed, the Secretary of State would be glad to consider, if any practicable scheme can be presented to him, the possibility of giving the residents of Hong Kong some measure of municipal government.
The Governor adds to what the Secretary suggests about the Executive & Legislative Councils a suggestion, which he has made, that the military contribution should be paid in dollars.
The last claim of the petitioners suggests that the public of a Crown Colony should be heard before the amount of their tax for military purposes is settled. It has always seemed to me that the bitter feeling which exists in the Crown Colonies as to the military contribution is not merely due to the amount which is exacted but also to the manner in which it is exacted. The contributions are not levied on any principle, but the weak colonies are made to pay what they can afford, and the strong ones dictate what bargain they will make.
The tax has been levied in a rather more autocratic way of late than ever. At the same time, the public feeling in the Colonies is becoming more organised year by year. The military contributions, it seems to me, will, if levied in the present way, put an end to Crown Colonies such as the three Eastern Colonies. They will demand and eventually get some kind of representative government with a view to making the same fight with the Imperial government, which they see that colonies possessing representative institutions now make.
Would it not be possible, when the contributions now on hand have been settled for a term of years, to look about for some more satisfactory and more uniform mode of treatment?