PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
•
10. One final thought, if I may I think that the press of events is imposing, and will continue to impose, changes in financial management in Hong Kong. Thus two, or even one, years ago, the powers which the Bank of England lists as appropriate for a CMI might well have appeared to reflect the ideas of some back-room perfectionist who did not appreciate that Hong Kong had its different, but nonetheless wholly adequate, ways of doing things. They do not look quite that way today. Looking at the past record, one is tempted to speculate (with all the benefits of hindsight) that some of the ways of doing things which have emerged have been such as to make it more difficult to set up a central monetary institution. I have in mind particularly the gravitation of some CMI functions into the hands of the Hong Kong Bank. Looking forward, I am inclined to suggest that opportunities might be taken to ease the path towards a CMI. think that some opportunities will arise anyway; and that it might be possible to nudge others into being. I used the word creep:
it could in the financial and economic circumstances of the next year or so be a fairly rapid creep.
I
30 December 1974.
PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
SHU
1
CONFIDENTIAL AND PERSONAL
(16)
Mr Holland
HONG KONG
1.
30/12.
I attach the Bank of England paper which has been sent to me direct. I have not kept any copies.
2.
Sir Murray MacLehose asked if I would pass it to you in this form, and suggested that you should send it to him in Hong Kong with your comments in an envelope marked "To be opened by Sir M MacLehose personally".
3.
Since the Bank have sent us this note, it seems unnecessary to pretend to them that we do not know what is in it. However, the Governor clearly wishes to avoid any discussion in Whitehall, and I suppose we must fall in with his wishes.
20 December 1974
ASSIS
A C Stuart
Hong Kong & Indian Ocean Dept.
CONFIDENTIAL AND PERSONAL
A.C.Stuart, Esq.,
BANK OF ENGLAND
Threadneedle Street
London
EC2R 8AH
19th December 1974
Hong Kong & Indian Ocean Department Foreign & Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street
S.W.1.
Dear Stuart,
Hong Kong
When Sir Murray MacLehose called here this week we had some discussion on financial and monetary management in Hong Kong. He asked us for a note recording the main points made, and I enclose an Aide Memoire setting these out. May I ask you to hand it to him or, if he has already left for Hong Kong when this reaches you, to forward it to him under cover marked for his eyes only?
Yours sincerely,
Цответь