CO882-(8-9) — Page 598

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

9

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

the immediate future.

At the same time, its liability to do so, when financially capable of bearing the charge. is clear and that liability should be again asserted in any reply which the Government may make to the representations now under review.

The experience derived from dealings with this and with other Colonies indicates that, if the Government made concessions as to the amount of the contributions to be paid, without at the same time re-asserting the principle it so tenaciously held and so frequently asserted in 1858-1871, the Colony would take silence **on that point, coupled with a reduction in the charge, to be an admission of the soundness of its arguments, and this would create undesirable complications bereafter, should the question again come up for reconsideration. I do not know what persuaded the Colonial Office representative to sign a report containing such views, and I hope to show later on that these views are incorrect. For the present it is enough to observe that Mr. Fairfield agreed in the report.

Bey.

The Committee, after admitting that there was good ground for reducing the contribution, in view of Mr. Goschen's pledge in 1891 that if the revenues of the Colony should become less able to hear the contri- bution the situation should be reviewed, proceeded to Para. 3G ef urge that contributions should be paid in local currency. On this basis they recommended that the contribution should be fixed at 17 per cent. of revenue but they added that :-" The Committee, while accepting a proviso Para. 46.

that in no case should the contribution exceed the estimated cost of the garrison supplied by this country, cannot recommend that the capital expenditure on lands and buildings, or the local charges for providing lodgings in lieu of barracks at Singapore should be “included in and covered by a fixed annual contribution. It would be difficult to provide in a fixed annual charge "for a purely local expenditure of uncertain amount, and The extending over an uncertain number of years.

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LA

Colony has always, and without objection, provided * sites for barracks and constructed the barracks required "for its garrison, and that arrangement should not be "disturbed." Further, they excluded the proceeds of land sales from ordinary revenue.

The Committee proceeded to state that if the percentage Para, 53. system were adopted for Singapore it would be necessary to extend it to the other three Colonies, with the result that the loss incurred on the Straits Settlements would be inaterially reduced. For Hong Kong they recommended

a contribution fixed at 17 per cent. of revenue, which Para. 54. #pproximated nearly to the percentages of revenue which the fixed sms demanded in 1865 and 1890 represented :

the Ceylon percentage they fixed at 7 per cent., but Para 35.

added “there is however a question about the maximum

+

limit of its contribution which cannot be determined

until it is settled what payment, if any, Ceylon shall

** make on account of the garrison of Trincomalee."

The Mauritius percentage was recommended to be Para. 59. placed at 5 per cent.: and the reasons for fixing so small proportion of revenue in the cases of Ceylon and

Mauritius were stated as being

(1) the fact that they were just emerging from a period

of depression;

(2) the great doubt whether the Mauritius Council would pay any more;

Para. 65.

A. 353. No. 11.

Ibid. closure in No. 102.

closure

No. 3 iu No. 76.

closure in No. 77.

39

(3) the fact that the two Governments owned and worked railways the gross receipts of which went to swell revenue, while large charges for working expenses and interest were borne by ordinary expenditure.

LL

The final recommendations of the Committee were that the contributions should be provided by local ordinance instead of annual vote; and "the percentages recom. mended by the Committee are based on the assumption that no important change in the existing revenue systems of the Colonies, or in the method of bringing the revenue to account, which would have the effect of reducing the military contributions, will be authorised without the special concurrence of the Treasury,' Correspondence with the Treasury and War Office naturally followed, and it will be convenient to deal

before the corre separately with each Colony, as

spondence is rather complicated, as the War Office prints follow this course while the Treasury letters dealt with more than one Colony but are printed only in one or other of the Colonial series.

(1) MAURITIUS.

On the 22nd of May, 1895, the Secretary of State informed the War Office that he concurred in the Cóm- Eu mittee's report; and on the 14th of the following month the Treasury wrote a long letter to the Colonial Office, expressing general concurrence, but saying that five per cent. could not be accepted as a permanency for Mauritius : they thought that the contribution should in time be brought to the level of Ceylon and therefore wished to A.355. En confine the operation of the proposed Mauritius ordinance to five years and in another letter of the same date they asked that the draft despatch should include a proviso that the revenue was to be assessed in gross, and to include all existing sources of income except sales of land and premis Ibid. En- on leases. The Secretary of State agreed to this, in a letter of the 24th of June, but doubted the expediency of expressing the hope that the finances of the island would in time justify a larger percentage; and consequently he thought it dangerous to limit the operation of the law.

The despatch as finally settled went to the Governor on Ibid. En the 27th of June, 1895, asking for five per cent. on grosS closure in

revenue (with the agreed on exclusions) and for the passing No. 80.

of the necessary ordinance. It appears from a letter of the 81st August, 1895, to the War Uffice that the Governor telegraphed that the principle had been hailed with Batisfaction in the Colony, but that he did not think that in the financial condition of the island he could carry the Ordinance for five per cent., and he accordingly asked leave to reduce the amount to four per cent. for two. years. The Secretary of State proposed to reply that Her Majesty's Government must press for the five After some discussion with the two other Ibid. En- Departments the Secretary of State finally informed the closure in Governor on the 30th of September that the Colony could well afford to pay five per cent, and that as one of the principal objects of the arrangement was to get a final settlement the Government must press for the enactment of a permanent Ordinance appropriating five per cent. of revenue as from the 1st January, 1893.

A. 517. No. 81.

No. 87.

Ibid. En- closures in

No. 90.

per cent.

The Ordinance passed by the Council of Government altered the terms in favour of the Colony by excluding