CO129-584-2 Estimates 1941-2 21-2-1941 - 11-6-1941 — Page 196

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ice Station and new Police Stations at Kowloon Tong and Blue

Pool Road. The introduction of a new subsidy code for vernacular

schools is reflected in additional expenditure in the Education

Department; and Government has again felt it its duty to increase,

this time to $750,000, the subvention to the Tung Wah Hospitals.

Considerable expenditure has been undertaken to provide an adequate

cemetery for the Chinese population at Wo Hop Shek near Fanling;

and road maintenance and improvement will cost several lakhs.

Provision has also been made under a new head for the recently

established Immigration Department, but while it is hoped that

the control of Immigration will be self-supporting it is not

intended that surplus revenue should be derived therefrom. All

items of Public Works Extraordinary are explained in the notes

by the Honourable Director of Public Works already in the hands

of Honourable Members.

I am afraid all of these measures will not find favour

with the conservative, who will say cut this or retrench that,

but if the Colony is to advance as it should, and it still lags

far behind modern standards in many respects, it must have

these amenities and if it must have them it must pay for them.

The estimates have already been pruned to what must be considered

an excessive degree by idealists who may condemn Government for

having failed in the middle of a total war to build Jerusalem with

its hospitals and health centres, its colleges and schools, in Hong

Kong's green and pleasant land. We have tried to steer a middle

course and have followed the golden mean of practicality as against

the extremes both of ultra conservatism and radical change. As I have

already stated these draft estimates involve a deficit of 7 million

dollars. The 1% increase on the rates already referred to will, if