;
100
1/36550/19/477
1
to
which made it unnecessary to ask for any further
issue of the "loan in aid" and accordingly I shall
not now expect a reply to my letter, and the Foreign
Office claim must remain unsettled until a decision
is reached on the question of the incidence of charge
of this expenditure; (£11,500 of it is in respect of
pensions and salaries and no question should arise as
Hong Kongs meeting this expenditure, but it is clear
that Hong Kong will find it politically difficult to
meet that part of the claim amounting to £467,000 in
respect of relief). In paragraph 3 of the telegram,
how ever, the Governor refers also to the opposition
to meeting the expenditure on the return passages of
those who were sent to this country and elsewhere
after the liberation of the Colony; and expenditure
on the demobilisation and pensions of Hong Kong
Volunteers. In this connection I enclose a copy of
a savingram from Hong Kong regarding the cost of the
local volunteers. As you are doubtless aware the
East African Forces came under War Office control at
the outbreak of war and the West Africa Forces in
September 1940 and the cost was borne on United
Kingdom funds subject to contributions from the
Colonial Governments equivalent to their 1939
estimated expenditure on the forces plus 25%. On the
other hand Hong Kong finances have not only met the
full cost of the local volunteer forces including
expenditure on their demobilisation at British Army
rates of pay and allowances, but before the war Hong
Kong, unlike the African Colonies, contributed
towards the cost of Imperial Defence.
Each of these
questions (viz. expenditure in Macao, on volunteers,
and on passages) will have to be considered separately,
We had been under the impression that Hong Kong had
/treated