Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL.
(10520)
No. 1.
[March 26.]
SECTION 1.
246
Question asked in the House of Commons, March 26, 1908.
Mr. Henniker Heaton,--To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the Government of Hong Kong is saddled with the financial as well as the administrative responsibility of carrying on British postal agencies at the principal Treaty ports of China; whether the British Government will in future share these expenses and losses, in view of the fact that Great Britain shares the profits from these services; whether the British community at Tien-tsin have been required to guarantee 7,500 dollars, the estimated loss on the working of the British postal agency at Tien-tsin during 1908; and whether the 7,500 dollars is treated as revenue in the Hong Kong Government accounts, the Colonial Government being required to pay upon it the 20 per cent. military contribution, notwithstanding that it represents a loss.
Answer by Mr. Churchill (for Sir Edward Grey).
The Hong Kong Government has for many years carried on the British postal agencies in China, and has hitherto derived from them a profit in which the British Government has not shared.
As will be seen from Sub-head D of the Post Office Estimates, it received a grant of 810l. per annum from the British Government in respect of them, out of which 100l. represents an allowance to the Colonial Postmaster-General for increased responsibility. The British Municipal Council at Tien-tsin have guaranteed a sum of 7,500 dollars to meet the anticipated deficit on the agency of that port during 1908, and under present arrangements any sum so paid would be treated as revenue for the purpose of assessing the Hong Kong military contribution. As I informed the honourable Member for Stretford on the 12th March, the question of the maintenance of these agencies is, however, under consideration.
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