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Any reply to this letter should be addressed to
THE SECRETARY,
TREASURY,
WHITEHALL, LONDON, S.W., and the following number quoted.
15546
15
Sir,
TREASURY CHAMBERS.
16th July 1915.
C
232
32921
¡REC
REG 17 JUL 15
I am directed by the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury to request you to inform Mr. Secretary Bonar Law that They have been in communication with the Treasury Chest Officer, Hong Kong, on the subject of the premium which at present rules in Hong Kong upon payments in bank notes over payments in silver dollars. The matter was raised owing to the action of the Treasury Chest Officer on one occasion in the early part of this year in accepting a tender for a Telegraphic Transfer on behalf of the Treasury Chest at a low rate subject to the condition that payment should be made in silver dollars and insisting in accordance with the letter of the agree- ment for the conduct of the banking business of the Chest that the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank should accept these dollars as the equivalent of bank notes for the credit of the Treasury Chest Account. I am to enclose a copy of a letter of even date which My Lords have caused to be addressed to the Treasury Chest Officer from which Mr.
Bonar Law will see that directions have now been given to
prevent a repetition of this action. It would obviously be open to the Bank, if the Treasury Chest Officer per-
sisted in such action, to protect itself by insisting on its side on its right to make payments out of the Chest
Account to Paymasters and others in silver dollars instead
of in notes, and in these circumstances the only possible
course in Treasury Chest transactions appears to be to
follow the customary methods of business for the time
being.
The Under Secretary of State,
Colonial Office.
At
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1