Copyto Ent
ba
Compton 9.
AIR MAIL.
Dear Cowell,
Hong Phong.
AINTED FOR UBE Carta 150
COLONIAL
OFFICE
3
53
Government House,
18th June, 1938.
followering
am sending by this mail a despatch on the
subject of Military Contribution, in which i am proposing
the fixing of it for a period of years, as in the Straits
Settlements.
I have no doubt that the financial experts in
the War Office and the Treasury will at once suspect that
fixation is a cover for reduction and that we are trying
to get away with a lower payment than would otherwise be
due. I want to emphasize that that is not the object.
The primary consideration is to get rid of this canker
in our financial system, which destroys the logic of every
economic consideration. The only remedy is agreement upon
a periodically fixed sum, and the proposal I have put forward
is an honest effort to arrive at a figure fair to both
sides. If you do not think the despatch makes that
sufficiently clear, will you do what is possible to convince
the War Office that it is so?
urge
I do feel, however, that you should know that some
of the unofficials pressed me to use the occasion to urge
the excessive amount of the contribution and to plead for
& reduction. Among the points they mentioned were;
that
H. K. COWELL, ESQ., C.M.G.,
COLONIAL OFFICE,
DOWNING STREET,
LONDON, S.W.1.