il
F
34126/6/7 RONG KONG.
208
CONFIDENTIAL.
NO.
sir,
Colonial Office,
Downing Street.
14 June, 1947.
Amid (12)
I have the honour to refer to paragraph 11 of
6 81
Sir Mark Young's despatch No.164 of 4th November 1946 and to
paragraphe 16 to 18 of his despatch No.48 of 24th July 1946
in which he raises the question of His Majesty's Government
making a free grant to Hong Kong to assist the Colony in
meeting the expenses of rehabilitation which have arisen as
a result of the Japanese occupation of the Colony in view of
the assistance given by His Majesty's Government to the
Government of Malta, As you are aware His Majesty's
Government has already made advances to the Hong Kong
Government amounting in all to £3,250,000 up to 31st March,
1947. As indicated in the correspondence, of which copies
were enclosed in my savingram No. 107 of 31st July 1946,
these advances have been treated as loans although no terms
of interest have yet been agreed upon and the terms of
repayment have so far been confined to the amounts received
from the sale of supplies purchased with the assistance of
the advances (see paragraph 4 of Treasury letter of 22nd
November 1945 referred to in paragraph 2 of the telegram
from the Commander in Chief C. A. 2210 of 22nd February 1946).
In the Governor's telegrams No.6 and No. 533 he envisager
that the Colony will be able to balance its budget in
1947/48 so far as recurrent expenditure is concerned, but
that special expenditure to be met from loan funds will
amount to $60,000,000 in addition to the $40,000,000 in
/1946/47
THE OFFICER ADMINISTER ING
THE GOVERNMENT OF
HONG KONG,