The reply to this Letter the following
Number should be quoted.
9321
99
C.O.
14607/216
RECR
Reof 10 JUN 19
TREASURY CHAMBERS,
9 June 1899.
Sir,
I have laid before the Lords Commissioners of
Her Majesty's Treasury Mr Lucas' letter of the 3rd instant (12274/99) and its enclosures relative to the note issues
in Hong Kong.
It appears that the Government note issue in the Straits Settlements has only recently begun to circulate, and that sufficient time has not yet elapsed from its inauguration to show whether the notes of the Hong Kong and Shanghae Banking Corporation which will be withdrawn from the Straits and issued at Hong Kong will be sufficient to
meet the requirements of the latter Colony.
In these circumstances, the Secretary of State
proposes not to renew, after the 31st proximo, the special arrangement under which the Hong Kong and Shanghae Bank
is enabled to issue such additional notes as may be required,
but instead to confer a power of issue, under proper
guarantees, upon the Mercantile Bank of India. My Lords
have not before Them the correspondence with the Directors
of the Mercantile Bank, which was referred to in the
Colonial Office despatch of the 30th January last, but
subject to anything which may have passed between the Colonial Office and the Bank, They are not disposed to regard
Under Secretary of State,
The
Colonial Office.
Foreign