CO129-591-7 Estimates for 1946-1947 12-12-1945 - 14-3-1947 — Page 104

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expenditure would be met from loan and was not significantly different from the earlier estimate (£1.1 million). A recent telegram puts the deficit at £2.4 million which is comfortably within the Grant-in-Aid as recently supplemented, but the special expenditure has increased more than four- fold to £4.8 million and, even more alarming, the prospective loan is postponed to some indefinite date next financial year in the hope that the United Kingdom will meanwhile provide temporary finance. I gather that this last proposition was not backed by the Colonial Office and the possibility is being explored of producing a loan ordinance which can provide a basis for an advance by the Crown Agents.

These varying estimates are perhaps inevitable in the case of a colony only recently freed from enemy occupation followed by a spell of military Government, but we are seriously disturbed at the apparent failure of the Colonial Office to give the

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