CO129-577-2 Financial assistance to Hong Kong Travel Association 15-4-1939 - 24-10-1939 — Page 14

NO. CONFIDENTIAL.

༡

Sir,

3

15 AUG 1939 0.0. R53%

2365

143

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONG KONG.

3rd August, 1939.

I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of

your confidential despatch of 22nd June, 1939, on the

subject of the future financial arrangements for the

maintenance of the Hong Kong Travel Association.

2. The Directors of the Association have expressed

their disappointment at your inability to approve of the

proposals contained in my confidential despatch of 15th

April, 1939; they agree that prevailing conditions provide

one of the reasons for the failure of this Association to

attract adequate support at present, but they have pointed

out that even before the commencement of Sino-Japanese

hostilities they were not receiving as much support from

the business community as they had been led to expect.

The Directors are, however, willing to carry on the conduct

of the Association as an unofficial body, but it will be

necessary for activities which involve additional expense

to be curtailed and for the existing bureaux to continue

to function merely as information bureaux.

3.

I feel strongly that the most reasonable

settlement is one in which public subscriptions should

equal Government's contribution, and although I recognize

this as a desideratum unlikely to be realized, I am not

prepared to reject entirely the conditional element in

any grant from public funds.

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

MALCOLM MACDONALD, M.P.,

&c.,

&C.,

&C.

4.