No.
SEEN BY DEPT 38???
7/12
54002/37 20
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
27
109
HONG KONG,
R
18th November, 1939.
GUNOV 339
endl, K Ests deep. of 17/11-(2) on $1650 39.
(VESA)
My dear Gent,
C. UGX
You may be glad to know how
our income tax proposals are progressing.
Today's official mail carries
the newspaper report of last Thursday's
debate, so you will now have at the
Colonial Office all that has been said
publicly on the subject: the shallowness
of most of the opposed arguments will, no
doubt, strike you. The fact is that the
Taipans of Hong Kong, so long remote from
any trouble worse than the 1925 strike, do
not yet realize what the war means; as
soon as income tax was mentioned the
majority of them made up their minds
against it and refused 'to hear the voice
of the charmer', for fear that they might
be persuaded to think otherwise.
Some are regretting this precipitancy
and I have reason to believe that opinions
in several quarters are coming round in favour
of such a measure: if the sitting committee
reports, in despair, that there is no better
way than by means of income tax for this
G.E.J. Gent, Esq., 0.B.E., D.S.O., M.C.