HKA 364/1
LAST
REF.
(55 6
NEXT
REF.
59060
3/10/
12
23/1
HKA.364/1
RECEIVED NE YO., 51
24 NOV 1978
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
PA
STRY
on Taken
(56
มว
1760 1780 etember 1978
&
MAINTENANCE OF GOVERNMENT HOUSES
6
PR
Bu. noted for 1.
1.2.79.
R.P. 22%2
боздесь
1. On 21 February 1978, my predecessor sent you a circular letter explaining that we were looking into the possibility of making UK funds available to cover the costs of maintaining Government Houses. You (or, in certain cases, your predecessors) subsequently wrote giving an assessment of the funds required, firstly to bring the house you occupy up to a reasonable standard of repair, and secondly to meet the annual cost of maintaining its fabric, furniture and furnishings in this condition.
2. I am sorry to have taken so long before coming back to you on this problem, but I hope that the solution we now have in mind will be acceptable to all concerned, and be regarded as both manageable and sufficiently comprehensive to meet most of the various points raised.
3. First I can say that we see no problem in finding the actual money required from within the aid programme, But I am afraid that we have not been able to devise a way of keeping expenditure for this purpose separate from your territory's estimates. We were forced to conclude that it would be improper to spend money direct from British aid funds on a local building which is the property of your territory. We also considered providing funds out of our existing provision for Governors' expenses, but in the end were unable to justify what would in effect be a new concealed subsidy providing solely for the needs of Governors.
4. I realise that this leaves you with the familiar problem that it might appear as if we were improving the Governor's living conditions in preference to those of the general population. To minimize the danger of such a misunderstanding, I suggest that you might like to adopt a procedure on the following lines. First the annual aid exercise would be carried out on the same basis as at present and an agreed figure of grant-in-aid calculated which would provide for the territory's reasonable needs on the customary formula; at this stage there would be no provision for the main- tenance and repair of Government House. Once these estimates had been agreed you should then propose that a new item for maintenance
Disemed with Mr. Quantrill
that sense
to these
no
we
decided
objections
proposals
hard
been raised by any of Governors ib
our
the
wes
пов
responsibilitig
в
take the mallo
&
/of
filter.
Gregory
allzg
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