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GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONG KONG.
printing on more or less the same terms as they now undertake
a part of it: or by transferring to Noronha the machinery now
belonging to Government in exchange for a share in a reconstituted
company in which Government would become a large, if not the
majority, shareholder, and then contracting with that company for
all future printing work, apart of course from occasional job
printing which it might still be convenient to entrust to other
printeries.
6.
Apart from legal claims, the Government is under some
moral obligations to Noronha, and on the whole I am inclined to
favour the third alternative as offering the best combination of
control and economy. It is, however, a somewhat unorthodox
arrangement for which no precedent in other Colonies is known.
There are of course many examples of Government participation in
companies of a public utility character, e.g. land banks and
hydro-electric schemes, but I know of nothing quite of this kind.
None the less I an not inclined to be put off by the novelty of
the arrangement, unless the Secretary of State is likely to
reject it on principle. Naturally full details will have to be
worked out and submitted for approval in due course, but I shall
be glad to have your views as to the acceptability in principle
of a scheme on the basis suggested.
your my
vinarly
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