Tai.
104
Hon. Colonial Secretary,
The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank as liquidators of
the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank are in possession of a number of bills which were bought by the DeutscheAsiatische Bank here from German] firms, residents, and missions. These bills, some of which are documentary and others clean bills, were posted to the Deutsch- Asiatische Bank at Hamburg, but were returned from New York as not transmissible to Germany. They all date from before the war. Some of the cargo covered by the documentary bills is on board German ships which are sheltering in neutral ports; some was on board two Japanese ships (the Kitano Karu and the Miyazaki karu) and is believed to have been detained in London; some was on board two ships which have been seized as prize (the Derfflinger and the Sudmark). The Shanghai branch of the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank have asked for these bills to be sent to them, and the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank wish to know whether they should send them.
2.
With regard to the clean bills, there seems no objection to sending them to Shanghai. If sent to GerLany and collected there they will not increase the total national wealth or credit, as the only result will be to transfer money from the drawees in Germany to the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank at Hamburg.
As regards the documentary bills, several
consideration arise:-
3.
(a)
The possession of the documents would probably assist the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank at Shanghai in getting possession of the goods and shipping then on by neutral steamers;
(b) Probably even without these documents the Deutsch-
Asiatische Bank could get possession of those goods by means of a bond or letter of indemnity, and in any case in many instances the first or second of exchange is not in the hands of the longkong and Shanghai Bank.