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necessary that we should be empowered to make arrangements in connection with any issue.
4. In these circumstances it appears to us that no issue of debentures can be made under the legislation hitherto passed by the Government of Hong Kong and that if the idea of raising in the shape of debentures the money which is at present required by the Colonial Government is to be adhered to fresh legislation will be indispensable. The necessary time to obtain such legislation cannot however be put at less than between two and three months and we are not prepared to say that it will be possible for us to arrange to continue for so long a time to provide the Government of Hong Kong with the £1,100,000 which we have advanced to it.
5. Such being the position of affairs it has become necessary to consider whether the money which is pressingly required should not be raised in the form of Stock, as contemplated by the provisions of the Ordinance passed in the first instance No.11 of 1905 and I now beg to submit our views in the matter for the consideration of the Secretary of State.
6. We still adhere to the opinion expressed in our letter of the 16th of October that the best procedure in the interest of the Colony would have been to raise in the shape of Debentures the £1,100,000 lent to the Viceroy of Wuchang and to make the debentures correspond as to date of redemption with the conditions laid down in the agreement entered into with the Viceroy on the 9th September 1905. It appears to us indeed to be obvious that such a procedure must necessarily be the most advantageous as the agreement provides for the loan to the Viceroy being repaid by fixed annual instalments which may be accelerated
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