CO129-510-15 China (Companies) order in Council- 1925- correspondence 19-4-1928 - 31-12-1928 — Page 55

(2)

(2)

(3)

Hongkong agrees to a proposal that some differentiation

should be made between public and private companies in

thematter of the annual fee charged, and that a solution

of the question of the duplication of the fee charged

might be found by levying the fee in full in every case

and then allowing China Companies to apply for a refund

in respect of shares held by them in other China

Companies.

Letter from the Under Secretary of State for the

Colonies to British-American Tobacco Co.Ltd. dated 11th

May, 1926 (copy enclosed) informing it that the

Governor of Hongkong had proposed that a reduction of

the fee from four cents to one cent should be made on

each hundred dollars of the paid up capital in the case

of any company such as the British-American Tobacco Co.

(China) Ltd. which is a private Company, and in which

substantially all the shares are held by a parent

Company. You will note that no reference whatever was

made to the abolition of the practice of refunding

the fees paid by one China Company in respect of the

shares held by it in another China Company.

An interview granted by the Honourable W.T.Southorn

(the then Colonial Secretary for Hongkong) on the 13th

June 1927 to our Hongkong representative, Mr.A.P.Bungey,

in which Mr.Bungey informs us that the Colonial Secretary

stated that

(a) The Hongkong Government, upon receipt of the

approval of the Secretary of State for the Colonies

to the Governor's proposal that the tax should be

reduced from four cents to one cent per One hundred

dollars of the paid up capital, was advised by the

Attorney General for Hongkong that there would be

no necessity for introduction of legislation to