CO129-370 - Governor Sir Lugard & Public Offices - 1910 [12] — Page 575

568

Incas

29387

09

as the date of the change, the Postmaster General will be glad to receive their Lordships' instructions as to finan- cial settlement. Their Lordships in the letter No.12942/ 09, addressed to the Colonial Office on 2nd September 1909 offered to guarantee Hong Kong for one year against one

half of any net loss.

The Hong Kong estimates for 1910, of which the

Postmaster General has now received a copy from the Colonial Office, appear to be based on an assumption that for the year in question

(a) the Imperial Postal Contribution of £710 will

be continued, as well as

(b) the personal payment of £100 to the Hong Kong

Postmaster General, and

(c) that the Colony will also receive $27,000 as

"half estimated loss on working of Chinese Postal Agencies". This estimated loss of $54,000 appears,

so far as can be gathered, to be based on a calcula-

tion in which the Imperial Postal Contribution of

£710 has been reckoned as revenue, while the Military Contribution on gross Agency revenue has been reckoned

as expenditure.

In arriving at a settlement it will be necessary to decide whether the expression 'deficit' is to be taken in the sense of Postal deficit based only on postal receipts and postal expenditure, and also whether the accounts are for thispurpose to be based only on actual expenditure, or

on liabilities incurred.

Their