CO129-605-4 Government loans 12-7-1946 - 6-1-1948 — Page 114

INWARD TELEGRAM

Code

.....

R.307

FROM HONG KONG (Sir M. Young

TO S. OF S. COLONIES

SIVED IN A

Class

D. 9th April, 1947. R. 9th

13.30 hrs.

W

No.622 Secret.

(3) on 5365-2147

116

46

As indicated in my telegram No.533, the

(25) £100,000,000 authorised in your No.1079 of 1946 for the

now loan will euffice, in the light of more accurate information now available, to meet expenditure still necessary to complete the rehabilitation of the Colony. Special expenditure incurred during the financial year just ended, together with rehabilitation expenditure approved by the Legislature for the coming year, will total just under $100,000,000, and this does not take into account railway equipment already ordered which will not be delivered until the middle of 1948, or the balance of the building programme and repairs to drainage, port works, etc., which will not have been completed by 31st March, 1948. Moreover, as I pointed out in my telegram under rcference, considerable expenditure on water conservation scheme will be necessary during the course of the next eleven years.

20

The total cost of rehabilitation of various Government services, including repairs to buildings damaged and the replacement of those destroyed, is very roughly estimated at $206,500,000, but this figure may be capable of some reduction. This excludes expenditure on th new Reservoir Scheme and on any other development schemes which may be recommended by the Development Committee. It is clear that this Colony cannot afford to borrow on such a scale, and it is difficult to see how the much needed extensions to the water supply can be carried out unless generous assistance from the Colonial Development Funds is forthcoming, but there is the complication that the water works will in due course become a municipal responsibility. At the same time, rehabilitation programme cannot be closed down at the end of the present

/year,