CO129-582-7 Taxation 6-6-1939 - 5-2-1940 — Page 98

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

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That this is far from the case is obvious from the numerous alternatives suggested to Government by representative and responsible bodies in this Colony, by the press, and by individuals sufficiently alarmed at the prospect to have filled the correspondence columns of more than one local paper during the last few weeks. It must be remembered, as has been mentioned more than once since this tax was first mooted, that it is not being imposed on a colony enjoying a period of normal commercial prosperity. The "prosperity", if so it may be called, of the last two years or so, has been artificially brought about, and no one would care to predict its continuance for any length of time. Our outlook is, at best, uncertain, and the most confirmed optimist cannot pretend that the present state of Far Eastern affairs does not give rise to serious misgivings in our part. Government in these circumstances must do nothing from which may arise a risk to the Colony's future.

I have two other, and these perhaps secondary, objections to income tax. One of them is the strong probability that in a mixed population such as ours, it will be found impossible to administer it equitably, so that while some will bear the full burden of it, others, and they are the vast majority, are so placed as to be in a position easily to escape it. And there is no reason to suppose that they will not avail themselves of this escape. My third objection is the necessity for the creation of a new administrative department, not only because of the cost but because of its inevitable liability to bribery and corruption. I have in the past criticised the Police and Revenue Departments in regard to this. Prosecutions of members of the departments show that I am justified in my criticisms. An Income Tax Department, once created, will quickly earn for itself an unenviable reputation for the same failing.

These in brief, Sir, are my objections to this proposed tax, and I have voiced them with the less hesitation because in doing so I am echoing the opinions of business men, men with years of experience in the commerce of this Colony, men who have come into more frequent and closer contact with the Chinese business community than any member of Government has come or can hope to come. Above all, Sir, I am convinced that in voting against this measure I am doing right by our Colony because the Chinese members of this Council, who represent a community without which we could not hope to exist, have expressed themselves strongly against it. When a measure of this kind, and of such vital importance to Hong Kong, meets with opposition from so large and important a section of its population, when that opposition is based, as in this case, not on any unwillingness to contri- bute towards the cost of the war, but on reasons sincerely advanced, when there are available alternative methods of taxation, less expensive and probably more speedy of yield, then, Sir, prudence surely counsels its abandonment.

We are told, Sir, and we like to believe, that this is a war to make the world safe for democracy. If Government, by use of its official majority were to impose upon this Colony a form of taxation

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