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new aerodrome from the Ministry of Civil Aviation and
-
the Air Ministry as although every effort will be made
by the Government, and no doubt at a later stage by the municipality, to set aside suitable appropriations from
recurrent revenue to finance such schemes, this will
certainly only be possible at the expense of some
desirable expansion of social services which could
otherwise have been undertaken. I submit that a Colony
which is endeavouring to restore its financial
equilibrium after a period of enemy occupation, which
has completely exhausted its reserves and which has
received no outright grant from the Imperial Government towards the cost of rehabilitation, has a very special
claim on any allocation for development purposes which it
may be possible to make available from any reserve
provision under the Colonial Development and Welfare Act. Without such assistance progress will be very slow.
35.
Though it is now possible to obtain a rather
clearer picture of the financial future than was possible
a year ago, many uncertainties still lie ahead and many
years must elapse before any strong reserve fund can be built up and the financial position of the Colony can be
regarded as secure. Yet at least there is a possibility
that if there are no serious set-backs the Colony will be
able to provide for necessary recurrent expenditure, to
complete the work of rehabilitation and to set aside
annually some modest sum in order to enable the water
supply to be gradually improved. But this not very robust hope of financial equilibrium will be completely wrecked
if His Majesty's Government finally decides that Hong Kong must bear the cost of the many liabilities which piled up during the war years and over which this administration
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