HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
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The total nett increase to the Colony attributable to the Sino- Japanese conflict for 1939 is therefore $7,296,483.00.
The gain to the Colony in respect of 1937-1939 is ascertainable and, on my calculation, amounts to a total of $17,080,298.00. The gain for 1940-1941 can only be an estimate, based on the estimated Budget figures.
Coming, then, to the prospective revenue and expenditure of 1940-1941. The estimated revenue, which "has been estimated generally on the assumption that the economic activity of the Colony will be maintained at not far short of its present level", is put at $50,861,470.00. It is therefore fair to assume that the nett gain to the Colony arising from the Sino-Japanese conflict will not be less than in 1939, namely, $7,296,483.00, plus a quarter of this amount for the 3 months in 1941 $1,824,120.00 making a total of $9,120,603.00, less any increase in expenditure attributable to the same causes not budgetted for in 1939. Of the latter, as shown in paragraph 11 of the Financial Secretary's Memorandum, the only item I can see which is directly attributable to the Sino-Japanese conflict is under Head 5, Charitable Services, which shows an increase of $224,749.00, being "increased grants to the Tung Wah Hospital and for relief of refugees". Moreover, I note from Part 2 of the Financial Secretary's Memorandum, Head 5, Sub-Head 23, that the amount of $250,000.00 provided for relief of refugees at the present rate of outlay, will not suffice for more than six months. If, therefore, we increase this amount to, say, $625,000.00 to cover the whole period of fifteen months, plus the whole increase of $224,749.00, totalling $849,749.00, and subtract this total from the nett increase of $9,120,603.00, the resulting increase to the Colony revenue for 1940-1941 is $8,270,854.00.
If my calculation is right the financial gain to the Colony arising from the Sino-Japanese conflict, in respect of the period 1937 to the end of March, 1941, comes to the stupendous figure of $25,351,152.00.
Honourable members may be interested to know that the total subscriptions received up to October, 1939 by the British Fund for Relief of Distress in China, Hong Kong and South China Branch, amount to $491,874.70, and that the amount of expenditure already sanctioned comes to $406,176.11. This Fund, of which Your Excellency is Patron, is non-political, and purely philanthropic. The flow of subscriptions to the Fund seems to be rapidly drying up, whilst calls on its resources are continuous. May I, therefore, venture to express the strong hope that Your Excellency will see fit to making a sub- stantial grant to this Fund as a friendly gesture of the Colony towards the indescribable sufferings of the Chinese?
I now turn to the War Budget.
The Prime Minister, in the House of Commons on October 12th, stated:-
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