{
7
12
7
1901 the year in which the 20 per centum system was introduced.
In submitting this request to you I
8.
venture once more to make my own personal view clear, though I
regret that it does not in this matter coincide with that of
the Unofficial Members and of the Community as voiced by the
Local Press (probably because of the inequalities of Assess-
-ment as regards different Colonies which I have pointed out).
ly personal view which I have not
hesitated to express in the Legislative Council and in private
conversation with the Unofficial Members is that at a time when
the burden of armaments is weighing so heavily upon every
portion of the British Empire, this Colony does not contribute
an undue proportion of its Revenue towards defence. At the
same time I venture to think that the neighbouring Colonies
of Ceylon, Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States
should pay a like proportion similarly assessed in every
particular, so that the grievance of being more heavily burden-
-ed than their far more prosperous neighbours may be removed
from the Taxpayers of this Colony. If in these circumstances
the Contributions of the Colonies named were raised to a parity
with that of the existing Contri.ution from Hongkong by the
inclusion of all those items in their assessable Revenue to
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which I have called attention, the extra sun tius raised for
Defence