3rd June, 1937.
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Dear Caldecott,
Our Legal Advisers reacted, as would be
expected, rather reluctantly to my invitation to
advise on the necessity or otherwise of the Power
of Attorney.
They said that, not knowing the
circumstances in which the local authority in
Hong Kong had thought it right to ask you to execute
the Power, they would only say that the duties and
powers of the Governor as set out in the Letters
Patent could by express provision be exercised by the Officer Administering the Government.
But Lockhart-Smith is, as you know
temporarily working in the Colonial Office and I
had recourse to him. He tells me that he, in fact,
drafted the Power of Attorney and knew the history
of it. He says that it is concerned with some
outstanding affairs of the trade loan and that the reason why N.L. Smith finds that the Power never seems to have been used is that those outstanding
SIR ANDREW CALDECOTT, K.C.M.G., C.B.E.
properties