:
10
{
132
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Ordinance to stand, by which the Bank would be permitted
to issue notes of a lower denomination than $5. The
1919
arguments advanced in support of the proposal in Sir F.H.
Despach May's letter of the 8th October 1908 do not appear to Their Lordships to hear much weight. In particular, They would be glad to be informed how it is that $1.00 notes of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation should still be in circulation to any extent, seeing that the right of issuing such notes was withdrawn as long ago as in 1882: and further, how the Colony is "being flooded" by the $1.00 notes of the Ultramarino Bank of Macao, which may be suppressed by the Governor as contravening the provisions of the Ordinance (No: 2) of 1895, and which, indeed, My Lords were informed in the Colonial Office letter of the 24th April 1908
1908), the Directors of the Bank had undertaken in. future not to issue.
(12604/190
Apart, however, from these considerations, the proposal is in contradiction to the fixed policy of this Board, as expressed in the Colonial Banking Regulations and reaffirmed in the Memorandum of the 21st September 1894: and more-over, to concede it in this case, would be to grant to the Mercantile Bank of India a privilege which has been withdrawn or refused in the case of the other Banks of
Issue in the Colony.
As regards the other provisions of the draft Ordinance I am to observe :-
Clause 3