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VTMID-H ‚Ä A (. &)
.D.9.8
COPY.
accompny in closure.
45-c, Robinson Road, Hongkong, June 11th. 1917.
Hon. Mr. E. R. Hallifax,
Secretary for Chinese Affairs.
Dear Sir,
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I am in receipt of your favour asking me as a member of the District Watchmen Committee to express my views on several questions with reference to the commercial and industrial policy to be adopted by the Imperial Government after the War.
It appears to me that these questions of vital National importance can only be satisfactorily dealt with by statesmen, economista, specialists, maufacturers, and business men of great experience, and for amateurs like us to present any opinion on them seems out of place.
I take it, however, that the intention of your questions is to invite an expression of thought on local commerce and industries rather than to consider the subject of Economic policy of the Empire. If I think I shall be able to offer a few suggestions.
30,
The value of Hongkong does not lie in her own trade or industries, for she is not specially a place of production, nor is she herself a territory of heavy consumption. Her import nce lies in the fact that she is a port of distribution, the muin chan- -nel of communication of trade for the Southern part of China.
In order that the prosperities of this emporium be maintained and the general comerce and trade of Great Briti extended to the whole and not a portion of China, it is necessary to consider the relations existing between the two nations and to adopt suitable measures to strengthen them so as to secure a further
expansion
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