7
leopy for mr., howell Mr. Grat
ENTERED
FRONT OF REGISTER
IN
Mr. Rogers.
3 Extract from Hassard Report of 13/10/38
revised
4. You.
Gov Refl. by Leg. bo. on
5 you.
844
Tro. dfs: estimates 1939 as approved
1
21/11/38
10/1/58. Requests approval.
864
28/11/38
"Its. sealed copy of ordie. 22/38. Appropriation ordie. 1939
at
Last year the Hong Kong estimates
showed the effect of the interruption, by the
Sino-Japanese conflict, of normal and improving
conditions in China after the previous trade
depression. While the conflict gravely
embarrassed Hong Kong in a number of ways, the
purely financial effect was that Hong Kong's
trade gained by the diversion of trade from
Shanghai and by the war boom, while the
finances of the Colonial Government benefitted
from the increased number of persons in the
Colony and from the flourishing trade conditions.
The 1939 estimates have been prepared
during a further interruption of those conditions
by the Japanese capture of Canton, which has
resulted in Japanese control of Hong Kong's
hinterland and its land connections with China.
This interruption is likely to have more serious
effects than the previous one, both upon the
Colony's general interests and, in the long run,
on its finances. There is as yet no
immediate indication of a shortage of revenue
as a result of the Japanese occupation of
Kuangtung, but the Colony's position is
obviously