Certamb
Su..19
majordý
A
534
of
quiry here. This is recommended by the Executive
Council
the enquiry however to be not by the
Straits Committee but-by (which indeed has ceased
to exist) but by a Commission including two repre-
sentatives of the Chamber of Commerce of H.Kong,
representing the silver and gold advocates respec-
tively.
daviomly
The Gov. himself is against an enquiry. It
appears to me that an enquiry would be useless and
mischievous. It would cause a further fall in ex-
change and general unsettlement, and the possibil-
ity of gold being recommended appears quite out
of the question. I think i adn safely say that
Coa
all the members of the late Straits Committee re-
garded the divorce of the currency of Hong Kong
from that of China as impracticable, and that the
same view was expressed by all the witnesses who
* L(x)—50654—3000-12-01 54040-8000-3-02
touched on the point.
Even if a change in the currency of H.Kong
could possibly be recommended by a Commission, a
gold standard could not be set up in H.Kong in the
present divided state of public opinion. There
must be a greater approach to unanimity, in favour
of gold, whereas the present dominant feeling,
despite the vote of the Chamber of Commerce, is
certainly in favour of no change.
Hong Kong can do nothing at present but await
developments in China. Under the Treaty recently