CO129-516-3 Military contribution of Colony assessmenet of contribution 13-3-1929 - 28-3-1930 — Page 4

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the old and that the deductions from the revenue

which Hong Kong propose to claim if the new basis is not accepted, are most of them inadmissible.

it

As to the yield under the two alternatives, must be agreed that the figures show that in the past the levy on the rateable value would have yielded less than the existing system and although these figures may be explained away to some extent, I think we must admit that it has, at any rate, not been proved that the new basis will be any more favourable to this country than the old.

The

There is also real force in the War Office argument that there would continue to be openings for dispute under the proposed new system. difficulty of assessment is I think, a very real one although it might be surmounted by giving the War Office some sort of control over the appointment

of the valuer. Even then, there would remain questions of the extent of the rateable area, as new parts

of the Colony develop.

The complications under

the new system might be less than under the old, but they would not be entirely non-existent.

from

There remain the claims for deductions of revenue upon which Hong Kong have relied as a lever to force the War Office to agree. The War Office

reject the most important of these claims for ) the exemption of "municipal" revenues, on the ground that these revenues were designedly included in the total revenue when the percentage rate was

has

been fixed in 1895 and that it is all along/generally

recognised that if any revenues then included were subsequently excluded, an increase in the percentage

would