§ 27. Colonel WEDGWOODasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he can state the total indebtedness per head of population of the four Colonies, Kenya, Tanganyika, Ceylon, and Nigeria?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the COLONIES (Mr. Amery)The figures are (1) £ (2) 14s. 8d.; (3) £2 16s. 7d.; and (4) £1, respectively. In the case of Kenya I have taken into account only the debt which now bears interest which, as I have stated in a separate reply, is about £7,250,000.
§ 28. Colonel WEDGWOODasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies the total public indebtedness, by loan or otherwise, of Tanganyika Colony at the present time or at the termination of the last financial year; on how much of this sum is interest now being paid out of profits or taxation levied in the Colony, and on how much has the interest been remitted or postponed or otherwise being met by the British taxpayer and will he say from what date the annual deficit made good by the Treasury has been treated as a loan?
§ Mr. AMERYThe present debt of Tanganyika Territory to the Imperial Exchequer is, subject to some possible minor adjustment, £3,171,891. Interest is being paid on £2,096,460, but is not being charged at present on £897,522 loans for deficits on current accounts, nor on £177,909 for repairing war damage. All grants-in-aid have been treated as loans from the year 1921–2 inclusive.
§ Colonel WEDGWOODAre we to understand that the British taxpayer is meeting the interest where the inhabitants of Tanganyika are not?
§ Mr. AMERYNo, Sir. This money was voted in the ordinary account Estimates, which are now spent, but the British Government is not at the present moment receiving interest in respect of the money which appeared in the Estimates last year.
§ Colonel WEDGWOODThis money was voted and spent, and it is now being treated as a loan instead of an annual expenditure?
§ Mr. AMERYSince 1922 grants-in-aid are treated as loans with a view of being repaid when the territory becomes self supporting.
§ Colonel WEDGWOODAnd the Government will decide when first to demand interest on this overdraft?
§ 29. Colonel WEDGWOODasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies the total public indebtedness, by loan or otherwise, of Kenya Colony at the present time or at the termination of the last financial year; on how much of the sum interest is now being paid out of profits or taxation levied in the Colony; on how much has the interest been remitted or postponed or is being otherwise met by the British taxpayer; and from what date any annual deficit made good by the Treasury has been treated as a loan?
§ Mr. AMERYOf the amounts which follow, the greater part falls on the Kenya and Uganda Railway, and it is not yet possible in all cases to define the extent to which Kenya and Uganda, respectively, have the ultimate liability for the debt. Approximately, of the Kenya portion, charges were on the 31st of December, 1925, being paid on £7,250,000, while the Kenya portion of the £3,500,000 loan voted by Parliament in 1924 free of interest for five years, was about £160,000.
In 1934 the question of repayment of the capital cost of the original Uganda Railway (£5,502,592) and of Kenya's outstanding share of the cost of the operations against German East Africa, provisionally set at £1,405,016, will come up for consideration by His Majesty's 224 Government in the light of the position at that time. In the interval, interest on these two items has been remitted. Payments to meet Kenya's annual deficits ceased in 1912–13, and the former grants-in-aid do not rank as loans.
§ Colonel WEDGWOODIs interest being paid on the £3,500,000 loan of 1924 at the present time?
§ Mr. AMERYThat loan was voted interest free for five years. As soon as the five years lapse interest will be paid on each instalment.
§ Colonel WEDGWOODWill interest be paid to cover the arrears, or are the taxpayers of this country responsible for the first five years?
§ Mr. AMERYWe are responsible for the first five years. It is interest free for the first five years.