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entrusted with
of Government
2.
any large amounts
of money.
I have stated in
my
despatch above mentioned why your Lordship may perhaps consider
it necessary
that any considerable portion
of the moneys of the Praya
Reclamation Fund should be
withdrawn from the custody of
the Hongkong and Shanghai
Bank. But if your
Lordship is of opinion that the instructions
conveyed in your telegram of the 12th instant should
be literally carried out, it will
be necessary
to deposit a certain
portion of such funds in the
Chartered Mercantile Bank above
alluded to.
3. The only three Banks of importance
in the Colony, beside the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank,
are the Chartered Mercantile Bank, the New Oriental Banking Corporation,
and the Chartered Bank of
India, Australia and China.
Without
any disparagement to the different Banks I have mentioned, I do not hesitate to say
that the credit of
the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank stands considerably higher than any of
the other three. I need only say
in proof of this
that their shares