(17865) Dd.145178 400m 5/73 G.W.B.Ltd. Gp.863
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
done, to await the result of the Commission's
investigations.
In his letter of 7 January Mr Ellis refers to
the Warren Hastings trial of 1788 in connection with
the Godber case. Our legal advisers have looked into
this. The Act of 1793 to which Mr Ellis refers was
repealed by the Government of India Act 1910. The
particular provision he had in mind was reproduced in
Section 124 of the 1910 Act but that section applied
only to India and in any case was repealed without
replacement in 1935.
In his earlier letter of 7 December Mr Ellis
also raised two other questions, one of which dealt
with exports of gold bullion from the United Kingdom.
We have no evidence of the ultimate destination and use
of gold exported from this country. Gold transactions
in the United Kingdom are governed by the provisions
of the Exchange Control Act 1947. Provided that a
non-resident makes payment for the gold which he
purchases in an acceptable foreign currency or external
account sterling, he may freely export it. It would be
improper to use Exchange Control powers for purposes other than the defence of the United Kingdom's balance
In any event restriction would not achieve the prevention of any traffic that might be connected with or financed by gold transactions, since these
transactions would merely be transferred to another
financial centre.
of payments.
Finally Mr Ellis raised the question of the
/possibility
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