parallel in the Colonial Office view of the Colony's eligibility
for C.D. and W. funds in the post-war years. After a territorial
allocation of £l million in 1946 to assist with post-war
reconstruction, the Colony benefited from C.D. and W. funds to the
extent only of occasional special grants from notably the Higher
Education allocation, partly as gestures for political reasons and
partly because such contributions enabled us to influence policy on higher education.7
19. Thus it has not been possible to find any way in which Government
funds could be made available for this project, because of:-
(a) the limits imposed on government overseas expenditure
by ministerial decisions, which preclude the provision
of additional funds;
(b) generally accepted criteria governing the distribution
of funds allocated for overseas aid, which preclude
drawing on the only existing resources from which funds
might conceivably be found for, or diverted to, this
purpose.
20. There remains the possibility of arranging assistance from
private sources by a loan on the London market or from the
Commonwealth Development Corporation. The Treasury and the Bank of
England do not believe that Hong Kong could successfully raise a loan
on the London market except under the guarantee of HMG. Such a
guarantee would be unprecedented and the Treasury could not agree to
give it. The Director of the Finance Department of the Crown Agents,
in quite informal soundings by the F.C.0., took the view that in more
propitious market conditions (and he stressed that the present time
was unsuitable) it should be possible to raise a loan without a
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