30104/H.Kong
alt private letter ( on quarto for Sir J. Anderson's sig. )
12.
Robert Chalmers, K.C.B.
Collins
Fiddes
J. Anderson
Answer atta
Private
13
Dec. lll.
162
Dear Chalmers,
I am writing about your official
letter of the 27th of Nov., No. 20455,
inviting us to pay back 20 per cent of the
opium grants to H.Kong by way of Military
Contribution.
As your letter truly says, no mention was
made when the Grants were under discussion
of any intention to exempt them from assess-
ment for Mil. Cont. From this T.Ls. assumed that
Mil. Cont. would be paid on the Grants and
fixed the Grants on that basis. We on the
other hand assumed that in such a case as
where Parliament was asked to make Grants
this
to meet part of a deficit brought about by
the Opium policy of H.M.G. the idea of taking
back with one hand a fifth of the me amount
tendered in the other belonged to the realms
of jest, wherein
of the Preasury
Army Council and the 1.0.
usually disport tham-