The Colonial Secretary, HO NG K 0 N G .
Sir,
Solicitor's Office,
SHANGHAI
-
5th March, 1928.
CAPITAL TAX ON CHINA COMPANIES.
54
Our Hongkong Manager has forwarded to us your letter of the 17th February last, with which you enclosed
a copy of the proposed bill therein referred to.
We are very surprised at the statement contained
in paragraph 2 of your letter, that "the present practice "of refunding the whole of the fee where substantially
"all the shares in one China Company are held by another "China Company will of course simultaneously come to an "end".
We have always been led to believe, both from
correspondence addressed to this Company by the Colonial
Office in London, and by your Office, and from interviews which our Hongkong Representative has had with your predecessors in Office, that the reduction of the annual
fee was to be in addition to the refund of the fee paid in respect of shares in one China Company held by another China Company.
In support of this statement we beg to refer you to the following:-
(1) Letter from the Colonial Office to British-American
Tobacco Company Limited (our parent Company in
London) dated 31st December 1923 (copy enclosed) in
which it is stated in effect that the Governor of