COPY.
CHARTERED BANK OF INDIA, AUSTRALIA AND CHINA
Bishopsgate,
38,
140
London, E.C.
To the Lords Commissioners
of His Majesty's Treasury,
S.W.
27th July, 1921.
the Note Issue of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation of which a copy is enclosed.
It is understood that in view of the
present situation in China, the Pank desire a
decision at the earliest possible moment and
accordingly Their Lordships would be grateful
if They might be favoured with the observations
of your Department on the matter without delay.
I am,
Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
Romalejith
My Lords,
We find it necessary to address your Lordships on the subject of this Bank's Note Circulation. The original Charter provides that the amount of notes shall not exceed the amount of Capital actually paid up, and in accordance with the Capital at that time the circulation was fixed at the equivalent of £800,000 viz: $8,000,000, The paid up Capital of this Bank is now £3,000,000 with a Reserve Fund of £3,600,000, and, with the extended trade which we now enjoy and the higher prices of produce at present ruling, we find that alimited issue of $8,000,000 not only cramps our activities but prevents the Bank from rendering that volume of assistance to the mercantile community which they may justly expect from us. We would, therefore, propose to raise our note issue to the equivalent of our present Capital, viz: $30,000,000 and would submit later an allocation for your consideration, should you approve of our action. We may, however, mention that it is not our intention, without permission from you, to make use of more than $20,000,000 of which we would purpose allocating $15,000,000 to Hongkong and $5,000,000 to China, We shall be glad to hear that your Lordships would have no objection to the above proposal, and of
course