HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
145
tax payable by such a man on various incomes, ignoring a possible surtax on the highest incomes, a matter which is still receiving the consideration of Government:
£400 per annum
£750 per annum
$50
$455
$1,225
£1,250 per annum
Before leaving this subject of income tax I would say a word about its administration. The Taxation Committee recommended that there should be a preliminary expert investigation of the administra- tive difficulties; but circumstances now render it impossible to secure the services of an expert and Government had to decide either to go ahead at once or to wait until after the war, when of course the urgent need would have vanished. It is equally impossible to get an expert from home even to help start the Department and we must do it with our own resources. Government is only too well aware that that is a formidable undertaking and I most earnestly crave the patience and indulgence of this Council if in order to make this new departure a success in the short time at our disposal we have to ask in the beginnning for what may seem an extravagant temporary establishment. I also crave the patience of the public who will have to put up with the mistakes and delays which we can hardly avoid in the early stages. I can only promise that we will do our best and express a hope that we may receive helpful co-operation from the public.
I come finally to the measures of exchange control and other steps to safeguard our foreign exchange resources which have been taken, or are in contemplation, on which Your Excellency has desired me to make a statement for the information of honourable members. It will be necessary for the home Government to make very large pur- chases for war purposes from non-sterling countries including Canada, the United States and the neutral European countries. They will need all the resources they can obtain in the currencies of those coun- tries. The first objective of exchange control measures is therefore to secure as far as possible that foreign exchange which may be held or may be acquired in the future by residents in the United Kingdom and the other parts of the Empire whose currencies are on a sterling basis should be made available to the Government. In their full form the necessary measures include the taking over by Government of all sums held in foreign currencies by residents in the countries concerned and the surrender to Government of all sums subsequently acquired by such residents whether as interest on overseas investments or as the result of the export of goods to foreign countries. To control the surrender of the proceeds of exports a system is introduced by which exports are only permitted by licence which requires such surrender as one of its conditions. Having got control of all the available foreign exchanges resources the Government then secures that they are used only for purposes which are considered essential or desirable by limiting
223