59
HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
Where the soldiers march, there the thorn- brake grows. In the rear of the great army comes inevitably the year of famine (###É 6. X¶ZW0624)" And there is a grim play on words at the present time in the verse of Ts'o Tyung (# ), & poet of the T'ong dynasty: "The bleaching bones of a myriad men make the fame of a single general
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Therefore, when lip-service is no longer
for the Cantonese people. So are also, as I well know, my colleagues in this Council. Is it, then, too much to ask that the Canton Government and the inhabitants of Kuang-tung should believe that in Hong Kong are sincerely anxious to resume with them normal and traditional relations of amity, to let bye- gones be byegones, to forget the unprofit able past and to reach forward to a hap pier future? The old order in China is
we
joint. But we, no less than our friends at Canton, are animated by an carnest desire to see throughout China good government instead of chaos, peace in- stead of civil war, prosperity instead of havoc, commercial security instead of piracy and brigandage. We are close neighbours of Canton. We wish also to be very close friends. (Applause.)
Budget for 1927
very
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY- Your Excellency, --In accordance with your move the First instructions I rise to Reading of a Bill intituled, "An Ordin- ance to apply
not exceeding seventeen million
seven hundred and
paid to Bolshevik tenets by any domin-changing and the times are sadly out of ant section of the Cantonese, when anti-British manifestations cease, when civil war no longer rages, and so soon as ever stable and peaceful conditions are restored in Kuang-tung, we in Hong Kong will be the first to pledge its Government our full support in all that makes for the beneficial development of the pro- vince. Our offer of an industrial loan in last July was not meant in any way as an attempt to buy off the anti-British boycott. The loan had, of course, to be conditional upon the cessation of the boy- cott, because plainly British money could not be ventured in a province which, however superficially and artificially, treated Great Britain as an
enemy. But our real object was to assist in the development of Kuang-tung, because in our opinion the harbours of Hong Kong and of Canton are not rivals, but are complementary to each other, and be- cause the construction of harbour works at Canton and of a loop line railway round Canton connecting the Kowloon- Canton with the Canton-Hankow Rail- way cannot fail to improve trade con- ditions at Canton and consequently also in Hong Kong. We are still ready and willing to co-operate in any industrial schemes mutually advantageous to the Province and the Colony.
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I crave the indulgence of the Council if in my last words I speak less imper- sonally than hitherto. I am surrounded at this table by Councillors whose lives have been spent in China and mostly among the Cantonese. I too began my official life in China and have learned to know the Cantonese better than the natives of the other provinces. I have lived in Canton both in the walled city (as it used to be) and as a householder in the Western Suburb. I have travel- led much in Kuang-tung and Kuang-hsi; and from long experience am imbued with a very sincere affection and esteem
a sum
forty one thousand five hundred and forty three dollars to the Public Service of the year 1927," and before proceeding, I should just like to remind Honourable Members that the total shown in the Bill differs from the total shown in the print- ed Estimates of expenditure by the amount of the military contribution and Public Debt Charges. These are, of course, included in the totals of expendi- ture to which I shall refer in the course of my remarks.
Your Excellency has entrusted me with the important task of addressing the Council on the Financial situation of the
Colony, on the revenue which we hope to obtain in the next Financial year and on the measures which, for the order and good Government of the Colony, you adoption. are now proposing for the Council's
Your Excellency has already addressed the Council on the political situation. It is a situation not free from anxiety, but the events of the last few days have justified us in framing our budget in an optimistic spirit, confident as we are in the inherent strength of the geogra- phical position of the Colony. But while
HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
we are justified in optimism we are not justified in pursuing a policy of ex- travagance and in view of the recent public advocacy of a
"bold and pro- gressive" policy it is well that we should pause for a moment and take stock of our position.
For over a year this Colony has been subjected to an illegal restraint on trade, which could not but affect the revenue of the Colony and the general prosperity of its people; and it was unfortunate that this attack came upon us at a time when the peak of a boom had just been passed and the inevitable reaction had begun, If I am correctly informed trading con- ditions in this Colony were not in a healthy condition in the early part of last year; there had been a large volume of unwise and extravagant speculation, and the contraction of business which had already set in was accelerated by the re- striction caused by the illegal boycott, The Colony has surmounted this double crisis with less loss and damage than might reasonably have been feared, and with none of those disasters which our small but vociferous group
of enemies not only predicted but, with that supreme disregard of truth which so frequently distinguishes them, announced as actual Occurrences. The Government feels justi- fied in assuming that we are now at the nadir of our period of depression, that our great merchant houses, with their splendid traditions of courage and fore- sight, will seize the opportunities now reopening, and that prosperity will once more smile upon the people and the Government of Hong Kong.
But, Sir, it is not the duty either of Governnient or of individuals to throw caution to the winds. The Government has been accused of falling down and worshipping the ideal of "Retrench- ment. At the risk of wearying the Council I would invite its attention to a few facts and figures which speak for themselves.
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revenue
In the year 1923 we had a of $24,783,763 and an expenditure of $21,571,905 and our surplus of assets over liabilities at the end of the year was $15,971,495. În 1924 our revenue was 824,209,640 and our expenditure $26,726,428 and our surplus balance was reduced to $13,107,549. Our revenue in 1925 was $23,244,365, our expenditure $28,266,817
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and our surplus fell to $8,113,428 with which to meet any deficit on the accounts for the year 1928.
Now the Estimates for 1926 were framed soon after the strike and the commence- ment of the boycott and in the reasonable expectation that the boycott would short- ly be removed. With the knowledge that there was a substantial surplus to fall back upon in case of nerd, revenue was estimated at $21,367,743 and expenditure at $23,790,615. The optimism of such a budget was justifiable but events have gone against us. The boycott has lasted through more than three quarters of the year and although, as I have already remarked, it has neither paralyzed us nor undermined the foundations of our prosperity, it has affected us temporarily and has reduced our estimated revenue by something under ten per cent, so that our revised estimate stands at $19,486,657. Our expenditure on the other hand it has not been possible to keep within the estimate. The difficulties of sudden re- trenchment were explained by the late Governor when he introduced the budget in October 1925 and these difficulties have been more than fully realized. The posi- tion did not clear up as early as Sir R. E. Stubbs then hoped, and so far from being able to put before you a supple. mentary programme of Public Works such A8 His Excellency envisaged, we have found it necessary to supplement many of the votes for the works which
were
actually included in the 1926 estimates. Where economies were possible without serious detriment they have been effected; where supplementary supply was found necessary the Council has been supplied with the fullest information when the votes were asked for, and, but this year's share of the cost of repairing for the heavy expenditure of $748,985, the damage caused by the great storm in July last, it would have been possible to restrict the total expenditure very closely to the total estimate. As it is however we anticipate an expenditure of $24,857,786 which is $1,067,171 over the estimate and will leave an estimated deficit of $5,371,129 on the year's working.
The effect of this is to reduce our estimated surplus of assets over liabilities at the end of 1926 to $2,742,353. The whole of this balance is locked up in building loans made in the days of an overflowing exchequer, subsidiary coin