PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TLC.O. 882
kimuilm
9
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
108
The Colonial Secretary on Friday last took exception to the expression monstrous injustice I am going to use an expression which is perhaps a little stronger because I think it may fairly be applied to this exaction from our revenues tor defence contribution In view of the sum that this Colony now has to pay annually as di fence contribution, amounting as it did. for 1906 to just about £215,000, and in view, too, of the local necessities of the Colony having tow trout of all proportion to what they were in 1895. I think I am warranted in saying that the extent to which we are taxed in this respect constitutes an "iniquitous injustice '
Mr. HUTTENBACH-Sir. I do not agree with the honourable member who has just I think when there is what may sat dowro as to this being an iniquitous urojustice after all be linked ou as a contraft, and for which no demand for alteration has so far I think if a demand been made by any party, there can be no question of injustice
is to be perde, which I shall be to support, it can only be to the interests of the Colony that such densand should be roade with due courtesy, in proper form and by avoiding everything likely to create bitter feeling. I would have preferred that before we appeal home we should have first exhausted all other possible means likely to enable us to make both ends meet, that before asking for the reduction of what is, after all a patriotic contribution by the Colony to the Empire, we should have first If we had thus tried everything else, such as Port Trusts, State Bank, and the like. tried and failed, our claim on the Home Government would have been of the Talatine! Hi, to the meth 4 in - Fich representations stron will be made I hope it will be pointed out that this contribution is after all a question seriously affecting British'trade It is as much a question of British trade as of trade of this Colony If, as the honourable member has rightly pointed out, we have to put on the tax-screw too tight, the place will no longer be attractive enough for the trade to come here As long as the trade is distributed from here we can But we can no longer do so watch that the lion share continues to be British.
I shall vote for the resolution.
as now, the contribution weighs too heavy. The COLONIAL SECRETARY Sir. I quite agree with the honourable member who has just spoken that we should place anything we have to say before the Secretary of State in a calm and dispassionate manner, and not tell the Secretary of State that he has perpetrated an iniquitous injustice, or say that this Government is per- petrating an iniquitous injustice in carrying out what was practically the agreement of 1×96 Further, when it was put before the Secretary of State that interest on capital expenditure should be deducted from the military contribution, the Secretary of State permitted us to pass a law on that subject. Again, he went further, and when it was pointed out that we were not going to raise a loan for a public work, and therefore that there would be no interest charged for the loan, the Secretary of State allowed us to pass another Bill to knock off from the military contribution four Well, Sir, if two per cent of that capital expenditure for the next fifty years. parties have made a contract, and one of the parties has met the other party in the way the Secretary of State has done, is it right to go to him in the way that this Council, or certain members of this Council, propose to do, and inform him that he has carried on, and is carrying on at present, an injustice to the Colony?
Mr ANDERSON That the position has now come to an injustice.
The COLONIAL SECRETARY : An iniquitous injustice means, I consider, that there has been injustice perpetrated by some one, and that person referred to is, no doubt, the Secretary of State
The GOVERNOR : I do not know that it is of much use putting this motion, as the contribution is fixed by law, and even if carried, the motion would not have the But I understand that honourable slightest effect unless it were followed by a Bill.
members desire a division, and I therefore put the motion.
The Committee then divided on the motion, with the result that all the Unofficial The voting being Members voted "Aye," and all the Official Members "No." equal, the Governor gave his casting vote to the "Noes" and the motion was there- fore lost.
40136
(No. 293.)
MY LORD,
109
No 129
HONG KONG.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Received December 28, 1907.)
[Copy to War Offic January 6, 1908.]
[Answered by No. 144.]
Government House, Hong Kong, 29th November, 1907.
In continuation of my despatch, No. 286, of the 22nd instaut,* asking that I may be furnished with a complete statement of the military expenditure borne by the Imperial Government on behalf of this Colony, I have the honour to submit the following observations.
2. Appendix 21 of the Army Estimates for 1907-08 contains an apparently complete statement of the sums appropriated under each vote for each of the Colonies, and the total for Hong Kong appears as £293,080. I am, however, informed by Colonel C. H. Darling, R.E., Chief Engineer, South China (who is acting for the General Officer Commanding), that this sum does not include loan expenditure on works, or charges under Vote 9. " Armaments and Engineer Stores theavy guns, he adds, cost up to £10,000). In the Estimates of the previous year, this statement appears as Appendix 20, and Hong Kong and North China are shown in one calculation, the total being approximately double the amount shown for each separately in 1907-08. I have found it practically impossible to arrive at the correct figures for each separately.
In the Estimates of 1903-04 and 1902-03 (those for 1904-05 and 1905-6 are not obtainable here) this statement does not appear at all.
3. I have the honour to ask that the Secretary of State for War may be moved to furnish a complete return showing the total cost in each year of the military garrison of this Colony for the past 10 years, as in Appendix 21 of the current Army Estimates, with the addition of the cost of defence works and of the items named by Colonel Darling and any others, together with the actual appropriations in aid received as a "Military Contribution from this Colony.
I should be glad if. without excessive trouble, similar figures for Mauritius, Ceylon, the Straits Settlements (and perhaps Sierra Leone, Jamaica, Bermuda, and Cyprus) could be added. With a correct appreciation of the amounts actually incurred by the Imperial Government on behalf of Colonial defence, I think it is not improbable that much of the misapprehension and consequent dissatisfaction regard- ing the military contribution may be allayed. It would enable me to make a useful comparative statement (should I find that to be pertinent when I have the figures) if your Lordship's Department could add to this statement the amount of the gross revenue, the ordinary revenue and the ordinary expenditure of the Colonies named for each of the years referred to.
4 I am in this connection endeavouring to prepare a corresponding table showing the amount paid out of revenue by those Colonies which provide their own defence, more especially of those whose frontiers are co-terminous with the territory of a foreign State--such as the African Colonies and Protectorates (Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, Southern and Northern Nigeria, East Africa and Uganda, Nyasaland, Rhodesia, and Bechuanaland), British Guiana, the West Indies, &c. but I find it difficult to do so with the materials at my command.
I should be glad if your Lordship should see fit to direct that this statement should be furnished to me by the Colonial Office. It would, in that case, bear a higher authority than one prepared from insufficient data by myself. The figures I require are total gross revenue, total ordinary revenue, total ordinary expenditure, cost of military defence. The latter I propose to increase by a third for medical, transport (land and sea), works and all other charges borne on the civil departmental votes, and I should be glad to know whether this is, in the opinion of the experienced officers of the Colonial Office, a reasonable or too small a proportion.
5. The question of the military contribution is, as your Lordship is aware, one
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