18
or in providing the jay; but that any such expenɛes may
he so paid if, and so far as, moneys may be provided by
Parliament in sny yeɛr for that purpose. Since there
were bound to be divergencies between Colony and Colony in
the use to which the local force was put, the extent to
which the local defe: ce needed to be expanded, the extent
to which that expans on was affected by naval use of the
port, and the ability of the Colony to pay, the Admiralty
represented that it as impossible to lay down any had
and fest rule, which could equitably be applied to all
Oclonies alike, end : uggested that each case would need
to be considered on 1 erita.
14 Turning to the particular territorie s
immediately concerned, namely Hong Kong, Maloya and
Trinidad, it was agri ed that in the circumstances the
R.N, V.R. whit in Malɛ ya would have to be paid for from
Colonial funds, at least so long as it continued to be
employed only for purposes of local defence. In Hong
Mong it was understo. £ that one officer and four ratings
had been lent to the Admiralty, although the unit had not
been formally placed at the disposal of the Admiralty.
It was understood that the Admiralty were already paying
these five men. Po: the rest, the cost of the force would
continue to be a Hong Kong liability, on the understanding
that, as in the case of Malaya, tho matter would require
further consideration If the Force should cause to be
empleyad solely for ;urposes of local defence,
regardo Trinidad, Mr. Monson pointed out that Trinidad had
assumed a large recu rent liability in connection with the
defence scheme for tle oil refineries, and that the limit
of this expenditure in military and air defence was not
yet known. He felt clear, however, that the cost of
maintaining
44