CO129-584-8 Hong Kong Naval Volunteer Force 16-5-1940 - 5-4-1941 — Page 18

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or in providing the jay; but that any such expenɛes may

he so paid if, and so far as, moneys may be provided by

Parliament in sny yeɛr for that purpose. Since there

were bound to be divergencies between Colony and Colony in

the use to which the local force was put, the extent to

which the local defe: ce needed to be expanded, the extent

to which that expans on was affected by naval use of the

port, and the ability of the Colony to pay, the Admiralty

represented that it as impossible to lay down any had

and fest rule, which could equitably be applied to all

Oclonies alike, end : uggested that each case would need

to be considered on 1 erita.

14 Turning to the particular territorie s

immediately concerned, namely Hong Kong, Maloya and

Trinidad, it was agri ed that in the circumstances the

R.N, V.R. whit in Malɛ ya would have to be paid for from

Colonial funds, at least so long as it continued to be

employed only for purposes of local defence. In Hong

Mong it was understo. £ that one officer and four ratings

had been lent to the Admiralty, although the unit had not

been formally placed at the disposal of the Admiralty.

It was understood that the Admiralty were already paying

these five men. Po: the rest, the cost of the force would

continue to be a Hong Kong liability, on the understanding

that, as in the case of Malaya, tho matter would require

further consideration If the Force should cause to be

empleyad solely for ;urposes of local defence,

regardo Trinidad, Mr. Monson pointed out that Trinidad had

assumed a large recu rent liability in connection with the

defence scheme for tle oil refineries, and that the limit

of this expenditure in military and air defence was not

yet known. He felt clear, however, that the cost of

maintaining

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