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30
CONFIDENTIAL.
Remarks on the Currency of Mauritius.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TILIAC.O.882
2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
|ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
THE reopening of the Mauritius currency
question appears to have been initiated by the two local banks.
The sole object of these banks--so far as can be gathered from their written representations→ appears to be that of inducing the Government to declare the rupec a legal tender for th of a sovereign, or 2s.
The Governor, on the other hand, proposes to constitute the rupee of India the sole legal tender of Mauritius.
The proposition of the bankers would leave the Currency Laws of the Island untouched, except with regard to the rupee, which would nominally be raised in value about 8 per cent.
That of the Governor would have the effect of revoking existing currency laws altogether-of declaring a rupee to be a "rupee," and nothing else and of demonetizing all other coins.
In short, the banks seek to establish a state of things in Mauritius identical with that which the Government of Ceylon have recently condemned; and Sir A. Gordon suggests the adoption of the system which the Government of Ceylon have just approved! Both, indeed, appear to recognize the existence of some defect in the present Cur- rency Laws, without exactly realizing what that defect is, or, at all events, without directing special attention to it; hence we have two widely different propositions made-one seeking relief in the further debasement of the metallic currency, and the other aiming at the same object by abolishing the present system altogether, and substituting an entirely new one in its stead.
There seems to be a tacit agreement on both sides that a change of some sort is necessary; but
[530]
B