PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :--
C.O. 882
6
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
178
partly from school fees brought to account separately, and partly from the proceeds of an education rate which, though levied by the Central Government, will be paid
Thus the effect in the absence of corrective measures to the Education Board
of the creation of the Education Board will be to relieve the Colony of the necessity of raising, as part of its general revenue, a sum equal to the proceeds of the educa tion rate (estimated for 1910 at $120.000 in paragraph 9 of the Governor's despatch, No 460, of 15th November, 1909), and to diminish correspondingly the amount The Army Council are unable to admit that assessable to Military Contribution receipts which, at the time when the percentage of the contribution was fixed, were classed as general revenue and assessable to the contribution can be re-classed as municipal and non assessable without justifying a claim that the percentage which -the contribution bears to the central revenné should be proportionately raised the information before them, therefore, they are of opinion that the recovered hospital charges and the revenue raised (from whatever source) for education purposes should continue to be assessable to Military Contribution.
17
On
the taxpayer of the United The statement that Paragraph 14 Kingdom is called upon to pay only £-6,545 for the safeguarding of a port of the highest Imperial importance, as against £192,596 paid by the Colony is wholly misleading, inasmuch as it ignores altogether the part played in the defence of the Straits Settlements, as of the Empire generally, by the Navy, towards which the Colony, as far as the Army Council are aware, pays nothing.
15
Paragraphs 17 20 With regard to the proposal that the Colonial Government should be furnished with information as to the details of expendi ture. proper accounts of the expenditure which it is called upon to defray." fuller accounts of expenditure." the Army Council find some difficulty in under standing the scope and degree of detail which is intended, and the purposes which it is to serve. If, as paragraph 20 of the Colonial Office letter suggests, what is asked for is a vouched account or statement susceptible of audit or of criticism in detail. which the local Government would use to question the right of the Secretary of State for War to fix (subject to Treasury approval) the pay and allowances of the British Army while in the Colony, the Army Council do not doubt that their Lordships will agree with them in refusing to entertain any such proposal.
A specimen statement of the kind now furnished annually to the Colonial Office was enclosed in the letter from that Department now under reply, and the Army Council can only ask that if (subject to the above) any expansion of it is proposed, It must be the exact form and scope of it may be indicated for consideration. remembered that that statement does not form the basis of the contribution paid by the Straits Government, which is a function solely of the revenue, subject only The to the proviso that it must in no case exceed the cost of the garrison. contribution seems in no immediate danger of approaching that limit.
19
But if what is wanted is an explanation in general terms of the reasons for increases in the cost of the garrison, the Army Council is, and always has been, fully prepared to give such an explanation in response to a request to that effect, whenever the variation is of sufficient importance to call for it. I am to point out, in this connection, with regard to the increase in the cost of the garrison from £154.198 in 1896-7 to £279,141 in 1908-9, that a considerable portion of the increase is only apparent, inasmuch as the figure for 1896-7 excludes the cost of new works and lodging allowances (£22,743 in 1496 and £30,306 in 1897), which was borne by colonial revenues in the first instance, and adjusted afterwards by abatements Treasury letter dated from the contribution in respect of 1898-1900 (see
1st December, 1898). For the rest, the growth in the cost of the garrison since 1896-7 is due mainly to the addition of à regiment of Native Indian Infantry in 1901-2, to the increase it has been found necessary to make in soldiers' emoluments, and to increased expenditure on armaments.
20
The documents borrowed from your Department (copies of Colonial Esti- mates for 1910, Liquors, Chandu and Petroleum Ordinances, and the Governor's despatch, No. 460, dated 18th November, 1909) are herewith returned.
I am, &c.,
The Secretary,
Treasury.
E. W. D. WARD.
179
Enclosure 2 in No 184 STATEMENT A. STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.
Amounts incorrectly deducted from Military Contribution (including Colonial Estimates for 1911).
2 per cent 10 respect of
Tuta! deduction in 1911
Probable future annual amount.
"Government Monopolies" viz. :—
£
£
Superintendent's staff. Preventive service, liquors department and launches assuming that the packing department, as well as the factory staff, belongs to the factory). Liquors revenue paid to Improvement Fund (1907-1911) School fees and education rate (1910-11)
3.185
3,500
34,882
6,000
8,500
4,500
1,333
1,500
5.396
1,000
£53,496
£16,500
Hospital charges (1911)
Rent of Government buildings let for profit (1907-1911)
8014
SIR,
No. 185.
STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. COLONIAL OFFICE to TREASURY. [Copy to War Cher, 11 April, 191. L.F.]
Downing Street, 10 April, 1911. I AM directed by the Secretary of State to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 11th March* on the subject of the military contribution paid by the Straits Settlements, and to request you to inform the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury that he proposes, to defer his reply until he has had an opportunity of discussing the matter with the Governor, who is expected to arrive in England about the 30th of this month.
I am, &c.,
14924
SIR,
(No. 132.)
No. 186.
HONG KONG.
H. BERTRAM COX.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Received May 8, 1911.)
[Answered by Nos. 190 and 198.]
Government House, Hong Kong, 12th April, 1911.
I HAVE the honour to lay before you the following observations in regard to the military contribution payable on the revenue raised to meet the interest and sinking fund for the service of the loan for railway construction, and to solicit your sanction to the course I venture to propose.
2. The Colony of Hong Kong has, as you are aware, been compelled to under- take the construction of a railway to connect with the Chinese line from Canton to the frontier. This, while it was a measure of self-preservation, will, no doubt, be an immense boon to British trade, more especially when the further extension to Hankow on the Yangtze is constructed and affords through communication to Peking. The Colony is, however, a small one, with a revenue of some $6,000,000 only, and an undertaking which has cost fully £1,200,000 constitutes a very heavy tax on its resources, more especially at a time of world-wide trade depression such as the last three or four years have witnessed, aggravated by a fall in the exchange value of silver, a heavy loss on redundant subsidiary coins (on the endeavour to rehabilitate which the Colony has spent some 74 lakhs in the last three years), and in the matter of the opium trade.
These considerations may perhaps add some point and force to my observations,
24658
• No. 184.
X 1