19
despatch is so optimistic as
even to suggest that it
1939
may be found possible in the early part of next year
to restore the expenditure on those items which
have been excised from the Budget as a present
precaution.
He proposes to review the situation with
this in mind, as well as the alternative possibility
of having to make further cuts, shortly after the
beginning of the financial year. The Select Committee
has been assured that if the revenue position were to
show a serious deterioration, it will be possible to
as will curtail further non-recurrent expenditure the mas
as cutin
not maintenance items in respect of Public Works.
h
Mr. Rogers has fully and clearly set out in
his minute the principle features of the Estimates
as now passed by the Legislative Council. The steady
progress which the public finances of the Colony have
made over the last five years (in successive positions
of recurring difficulty from one cause and another),
is illustrated by the tables which his minute includes.
The main financial prop of the revenue in Hong Kong is
a rating system on property, and for that reason an
influx of well to do refugees has a beneficial effect
on the yield from that source. In present circumstances,
there are a mass of destitute refugees from China who,
of course, constitute a financial burden by reason
of the provision which has to be made for accommodation
and subsistance partly at the public expense. But
the more enduring element of the refugees is likely
to be found amongst those who have lost their
businesses in Shanghai and North China, and for whom
the prospect of restoration of profitable activity
in those places is far more obscure than those who
have been temporarily driven out of Canton and South
China.apanese main interest, in the long run, must
For
f
be
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