Wednesday, March 29, 1972
"Of course,
Financial Secretaries will always err on the side of
caution, but not for the Machiavellian reasons ascribed to them by my
Honourable Friends," he added.
He wondered how "free and easy our critics inside and outside this
Chamber" would be about what Mr. Browne had described as the "credibility
of the Estimates" if Hong Kong had not been operating against a strong
reserve position, he said.
"And strong we intend to keep it, despite the fact that on my last
count various commentators, again inside and outside this Chamber, have
spent our reserves several times over, "ho stressed.
Substantial Amounts
He explained that only in the last three years when the Colony
was enjoying a "remarkable growth movement", had revenue exceeded expectations
by substantial amounts.
Mr. Haddon-Cave went on to say that he could not believe that his
Honourable Friends did not wish a degree of control to be exercised over the
rate of growth of expenditure.
"We do this directly and not indirectly by fiddling the revenue estimates,"
he emphasised.
"Indeed, it is with the utmost reluctance that we ever take the easy
way out and say of such and such a project or proposal to expand a service:
we cannot afford it," he said.
"Furthermore, our system permits a degree of flexibility which is
probably unique," he added.
/He was