622
April, 1906, copies of which formed Enclosure 2 to that
despatch, is equally applicable to the case of the Electric
Traction Company, and I suggest that a copy of this corres-
pondence be sent to the Secretary to the latter Company for
the information of his Board.
4.
The Board believes that the extract from
the "South China Morning Post" of the 27th. March, 1906,
sets out the facts (respecting Chinese subsidiary coinage)
accurately. This as Your Lordship is aware from my pre-
vious communication is not entirely the case. The fact
that the public see very little of Hongkong small coinage
is not due to "the simple reason that being of higher value
"than the Chinese coins it goes into the interior and does
*not return, unless in the shape of Chinese pieces after
being reminted". The Chinese subsidiary coins are of the
same intrinsic value as the Hongkong ones; the latter have
of late been returning to the Colony in greater numbers
than the banks can put on the market: and it is dollars and
not the more heavily alloyed Hongkong subsidiary coins that
are melted down in the Canton Mint to make 20 cent pieces.
Again the references to the Viceroy of Canton robbing the
Hongkong Government of their profits on the circulation of
subsidiary coinage and to the duty of that Government not
to allow any outsiders to participate in their lawful pro-
fite