16/Abroad/276 (F.1.)
Sir,
Enclosure in
CORY
Mo.
68
A
25th April, 1929.
I am commanded by the Army Council to inform you that they have had under consideration two letters from the Colonial Office numbered 52802/1928 and dated respectively 12th October, 1928, and 26th January, 1929, copies of which have been sent to the Treasury, relative to a proposal initiated by the Governor of Hong Kong in a despatch dated 24th June, 1926, and developed in further despatches dated 28th July and 1st November, 1928, for changing the method of assessing the Military Contribution of Hong Kong. Hong Kong now pays the cost of its garrison or gross revenue, whichever is less; the Governor of the Colony proposes to substitute, for the revenue limit to the amount of the
At the same time particulars have been received of various claims for the modification of the present system which the Governor would propose to put forward if the new proposal were not accepted.
20% of
Colony's Military Contribution, a 124 levy on the rateable value.
2. The Council have had their provisional comments on these questions embodied in a memorandum, a copy of which is enclosed herewith. The position as it presents itself to the Council and as set forth in the memorandum may be summarised as follows :-
(a) The existing system of assessing Colonial Military Contributions is substantially that proposed by the Eastern Colonies themselves and adopted in 1895 on the recommendations of the Haliburton Committee. It has not been shown that it fails to answer the original purpose of graduating the Colonies' payments towards their general defence as part of the Empire according to their capacity to pay. It has worked for 35 years, and Lord Peel' Committee, which recently reviewed Colonial Military Contributions, suggested no alternative system. (Paragraph 1).
(b) The main criticism made against the existing system by the Governor of Hong Kong is that it offers scope for points of controversy; few such points, however, appear to have raised any difficulty between Hong Kong and the War Office for many years past.
Only in the comparatively minor matter of making estimating. easier does it appear that the proposed system would be an improvement on the present so far as the War Office is concerned. (Paragraph 2 - 5)..
(c) The Ordinance No.6 of 1901 which governs the valuation of Hong Kong leaves open for decision from time to time by the Colonial Authorities both the area of valuation and the minimum of rateability. Further the new proposal would deprive the Colonial Authorities of almost all financial interest in maintain- ing the rates. (Paragraph 3 - 7).
(d) The comparison of the amounts of contribution under the present system and those which the new system would have yielded for past years suffers from the disturbing factors of the war and rent restrictions, but it is not clear that a levy on rateable value would be as good a criterion of the Colony s capacity to pay as is a percentage of gross revenue. Valuation by an appointed assessor introduces elements of individual judgment. (Paragraphs 8
CÔNG
9).
The Secretary,
The Treasury.
(e) /
។