Vote is intended to be supplementary to the provision
of finance for development by the Colony itself. I
am, of course, aware of the heavy possible demands,
Hong Kong's frioncal recources.
on the Oolony xisting finances, some of which cannot
be readily calculated at the present time, I am also
mindful of the necessity for re-establishing, as early
as possible, the necessary reserve funds to place the
financial
Colony once again on a firm/footing. The opportunity
has been taken, with the presence of the Financial
Secretary in this country, to consider to what extent
it may be practicable to secure further revenue by
increasing taxation in various directions and by other
methods, and I shall be addressing you separately on
this point in due course. In the meantime, however,
while it may not be immediately possible for Hong Kong
to supplement from her own resources Colonial Development Welfare
assislare
Fund grante, I find it difficult to accept the view
་
that this may not be practicable within a short period,
especially having in view the terms of the recent
financial settlement which has been reached between
His Majesty's Government and the Colony. I trust,
therefore, that, when submitting proposals for the
expenditure of the second half of the Hong Kong allocation
under the Colonial Development and Welfare Act, in connection
with the urban development of Hong Kong, earnest consideration
may be given to the extent to which by then it may be
found practicable for the Colony to supplement the
avrilare
assistance granted under the Act.
40
Turning to the proposals submitted in your
despatch, the only general comment I have to offer is that
some of them seem to be of an economic nature and should
more properly be financed by loan than by grant, and that
it would be preferable to confine Colonial Development and
Welfare assistance to those proposals which might properly
be financed by free grants. It certainly should not
follow that because a project of a commercial nature is to
/ be
46