28
On the other hand, we here have never (as I understand it) abandoned the idea that it may well be
necessary to approach the Treasury with requests for
Re
free grants, based on inability of these Colonies to
bear the financial burdens which have fallen upon their
shoulders as a result of the Japanese occupation. At
the discussion which Mr. Pyke and I had with Mr. Winnifrith
in October (at which Mr. Pyke had indicated that, in
his view, the Malayan Union would not need a free grant,
but would be able to manage with loans) I myself
indicated that we might well have to ask the Treasury
for a free grant to Singapore and Mr. Winnifrith did
not rule out such a possibility. All that he asked us to
do in his letter of the 4th November (No. 5 on 55178/10/46)
was that we should not ourselves put the idea of a free
grant into the heads of our Far Eastern Colonial
Governments.
Since that date we have ourselves been coming to
the conclusion that Mr. Pyke's views about the financial
position of the Malayan Union Government were unduly
inny
optimistic and that we might well have to ask the
Treasury for a free grant to that Government, as well
as to those of the other Far Eastern Colonies. And
this possibility has been kept open in Mr. Caine's
and my letters to Mr. Winnifrith at Nos. 6 and 10 on
that file. What I myself have doubted (and continue to
doubt) is whether any useful purpose would be served by
attempting to get the Treasury to agree at this stage to
the "principle" of free grants. I have also felt that
we should be on very much stronger ground if we held our
hands until we can present some fairly complete picture
of the financial prospects of these territories.
We are
still not in a position to do this for Singapore and the
Malayan Union. For example we still have not the remotest
idea of what the war damage bill is likely to amount to. Mr. Carson (the Malayan War Damage Commissioner) who
/has