Extract from the
HONG KONG DAILY PRESS .
18th
dated
January, 1941.
235
COLONY'S RECORD
BUDGET
FACED with the problem of
on
finding ways and means to meet deficit of
a
over seven-and-a-half million dol- lars in the Colony's budget for 1941-42, the Hongkong Government has turned to increased taxation in order to augment its assets for the coming year. The new duties which came into force Thursday cannot be said to have come as a surprise to the public. Despite the fact that the community as a whole has been cheerfully additional labouring under taxation since the emergency created by the outbreak of war in Europe, the public has not been slow to face the sterner facts of increased ex- penditure and the necessity which has arisen to increase the Colony's income so that it can contribute to the mother country's war effort proportionately to what is be- ing done in other parts of the Empire. One comforting fea- ture of the new duties is that they will not fall too heavily on the poorer working classes. In fact, they may all be said to apply to luxuries, though there is no doubt that the increase in the tax on gaso- lene must adversely affect the motor hiring business in the Colony and cause a reduction in the number of people who use
motor conveyances for business or pleasure.
IT IS WHEN one examines the items of increased ex- penditure which have led to the Colony entering on its new financial year with a huge deficit, that criticism becomes necessary. Excess spending was reported under a number of heads in which charitable disbursements top- ped the list with over $700,000 for refugee relief. The ex- planation is the well-known
one of blaming the situation in China for the surplus has been population that thrust on the Colony's hos- pitality. The situation in China can now be said to have turned favourably in that country's favour and when
out hostilities broke between Germany and Bri- tain, knowledge that a grea- ter emergency had arisen, in which the Colony would have to share, should have made the Government realise the 'need for taking suitable steps to relieve the country of this unwanted burden of expendi- ture. The half-hearted mea- sures that have been brought in with a view to reducing this population have not met with any marked success and the refugee question still re- mains unsolved. It is in time of a real emergency arising here that the nuisance aspect of this surplus population will become a definite problem, from its continued apart drain on the Colony's finances.
DEFENCE EXPENDITURE shows another big excess as far as it relates to the Volun- teer Forces and the precau- tions being taken for the pro- tection of the civilian popula- action. tion against enemy There can be no real com- plaint against this. Hong- kong, in keeping with other important parts of the Bri- tish Commonwealth, has been called upon to strengthen its defence preparations to meet an attack and the response from the public to co-operate in defence measures has, in- deed, been most encouraging. There has been considerable speculation, however, on the high scale of emoluments being paid to those who have been recruited into the gold- braided ranks of the naval volunteers and it is generally felt that their scale of pay is out of all keeping not only with their duties, but with
their ability, when compared with the same ranks of the regular naval units. Consi- dering the fact that these men have been appointed to the senior ranks with very little experience in naval duties, in contrast to the long period of training which the Royal Navy
for Navy provides similar ranks, a considerable saving can be obtained by reducing the scale of pay here until standard efficiency is reached. The meagre scale of pay given to members of the Volunteer force, who are mobilised for duty, shows up this discrepancy to an even greater extent.
as
THE ESTIMATED RE- VENUE for the coming finan- cial year is expected to yield an excess over $16,000,000 from war taxation, but the estimate from at least one of the sources of re- venue from which this sur- plus is anticipated-Income Tax-is,
the Financial Secretary admitted, rather on the optimistic side. Never-į theless, the budget figures do not give cause for any un- necessary despondency. The sacrifices which the popula- tion will have to make will undoubtedly be heavier as the year runs its course, but when the items now present- ed for approval have been suitably pruned down by the Select Committee which is to consider it, there is every likelihood that the Colony will be able to tide over its present financial difficulty and meet the future in the full performance of its duty as an integral part of the British Empire. The public is more than willing to make sacrifices, but they have the right to expect the Govern- ment of the Colony to set them an example in this respect.
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