CO129-606-2 Treasury control over Hong Kong finances 22-1-1948 - 9-12-1948 — Page 56

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financial matters in accordance with the constitution will be secured, while

at the same time the Secretary of State's responsibility to Parliament in

respect of the broad issues of policy will be preserved.

7. As a necessary corollary of these measures of devolution the machinery by

which Governments keep the Colonial Office generally informed in advance of their

financial position and policies will need to be developed. The full success

of the policy of financial devolution, implying consultation rather than formal

approval, requires that full information of a general character should be

available to the Colonial Office at the stage when Colonial Governments are

considering their plans. This is particularly important at a time when both

the United Kingdom and Colonial Territories, along with the rest of the

Commonwealth and indeed the world as a whole, are facing economic difficulties

of extreme gravity, and when co-ordination of action in both the financial and

economic field is of special importance. I intend that the Colonial Office

should supply an increasing amount of information to Colonial Governments on

general economic and financial issues. I have no doubt that Colonial Govern-

ments themselves will readily agree that they should keep the Colonial Office

fully informed of their economic and financial position. The necessary co-

ordination between Colonial Governments and the Colonial Office can then

increasingly be secured by means of discussion between myself and members of the

Colonial Office on the one hand and Governors, Financial Secretaries and other

senior officers from Colonial Territories on the other. For the purpose of

supplying the ini ormation required I consider that Financial Secretaries should

keep in regular touch by correspondence with the Colonial Office on important

financial issues, so as to keep the Colonial Office regularly informed of major

developments. In particular a memorandum giving in broad outline the antici-

pated budgetary position and proposals should be forwarded to the Colonial Office

at as early a stage as possible in the preparation of the Estimates, so as to

give the Colonial Office an opportunity of sending the Government concerned any

comments which they may wish to make if possible before the submission of the

Estimates to the Legislative Council and in any case before the discussion

of the Estimates by the Legislative Council reaches a stage at which such

comments would no longer be effective. I should also desire to receive

advance copies of the Annual Estimates for information

purposes