HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
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conditions are still so chaotic that it is not practicable except at the cost of further lengthy delays to obtain any clear cut distinc- tion between rehabilitation expenditure and expenditure on normal Other Charges. There is inevitably a good deal of overlapping and payments which would fall within the latter category do not in fact represent normal expenditure as they are swollen by high labour costs and abnormal costs of material which are the indirect results of the war.
By the beginning of the next financial year the position should be much more normal. Pre-occupation claims will have been met and military officers on loan will have disappeared. Officers on leave pending retirement will have retired and only one officer will be paid in respect of each post. Wartime departments such as Supplies, Trade and Industry and the Custodian of Property's Department will have been disbanded or at least very materially reduced. Personal Emoluments should therefore have come down to more or less their normal figure for the post-war period though this figure will be greatly in excess of the 1941 figure as the cost of living allowances will still be necessary and the Police will in all probability still be nearly 200 over establishment. Nevertheless if all expenditure on reconstruction for the next financial year is met from loan funds the deficit, though doubtless large, should not be outside the bounds of reason.
In these circumstances this Government came to the conclu- sion that there would be every advantage in postponing the floating of a loan until the first half of 1947. It was felt that by then we would have a much clearer picture of the position and we should know what our ultimate requirements in the way of a loan would really be. Such postponement would of course be depen- dent on the willingness of His Majesty's Government to meet our deficit on the 31st March 1947 treating any advance as a first charge on the new loan. Certain additional information has been asked for before a decision on this point can be reached by His Majesty's Government and in the meantime rehabilitation expenditure has been grouped in a Schedule at the end of the Estimates but separated out under the proper Heads.
I now come to the Estimates themselves. The revenue for the 11-month period 1st May 1946 to 31st March 1947 is estimated at $51,308,300. If certain profits which it is hoped will be realised by the Supplies, Trade and Industry Department to set off the cost of their staff and operating expenses are deducted, the revenue for the 11-month period becomes in round figures $50,000,000. This excludes any receipts under the War Revenue Ordinance, about which I have a few remarks to make at a later stage. When it is considered that this rate of revenue collection has been reached only 10 months after the liberation of the Colony I think Honourable Members will agree that it represents a very remarkable recovery.
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