Registry
NO. MF 9/548/1 DRAFT LETTER
SECURITY CLANFICATION
Top Secret.
*keret.
Confidential.
Restricted. theirsified.
PRIVACY MARKING
To:-
A Walker Esq HM TREASURY
Type 1 +
FROM
SJG CAMBRIDGE
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
FRD
In Confidence
1.
$
1.
1
Copies to
Layton Esq
NEW UNILATERAL GUARANTEE:
1.
HONG KONG
Kingsley
Please refer to Jones' letter of 4 March
in the
to Ray Barber Bankbagged
CMG
2.
nk of England
Aust
al Advisers
Crowson
CIUD
I am afraid that we re not happy with the idea
of deleting the provision under which sterling held locally in Hong Kong is eligible for guarantee.
understand
Although I that since the withdrawal of the
Hong Kong Commercial Banks' sterling from the.
guarantee arrangements, the provision has not actually been used by the "ong Kong Government, it is
nevertheless something to which they are entitled under the present Declaration; and in view of their
it might be unmike to well-known touchiness, we should deprive them
mthant consulta from
lala
n
of it 17y. In our view the proper course
would be to leave the provision, in the new Declaration, and to write to Hong Kong to suggest that although we had left it in because we were continuing the provisions of the existing Declaration, it seemed to us to be a dead letter, and could we not therefore agree in the interests of administrative tidying-up to drop it by mutual agreement? Rather a cumbersome procedure, I fear, but,in our judgement
prudent.
3. A further point is that we know that Haddon- Cave and Butter in Abu Dhabi have been in touch with each other about sterling guarantee arrangements
19
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