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1133
In the reply to this Letter the following Number should be quoted.
Hco Rra II JAN 12
TREASURY CHAMBERS.
23855
Ir
January 1912.
22.
Sir,
1 I have laid before the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury Sir G. Fiddes' letter of the 23rd ultimo (38164/1911) further respecting the assessment to Military Contribution of the grants made by His Majesty's Government to Hong Kong in compensation for the loss of revenue due to the new opium policy.
My Lords have learnt with regret that Mr. Secretary Harcourt feels unable to invite the Hong Kong Government to pay Military Contribution on these grants on the ground that
no mention of assessment to contribution was made at the
time when the grants were fixed.
In Their Lordships' opinion it was not necessary that mention should have been made and They fail to under-
stand why the omission, if such it can be called, should
have given rise to the assumption that the grants were not
assessable.
In the first place My Lords have not been able
to trace an instance in recent years in which a grant from the Imperial Exchequer has been so excluded, whereas the case of the Imperial Contribution in respect of the postal Agencies in Hong Kong and Their Lordships' remarks in the third paragraph of the Treasury Letter of 20th July 1910 † %% (9696/10) furnish clear evidence of Their practice in
circumstances which concerned this same Colony.
The Under Secretary of State,
Colonial
Colonial Office.
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