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10340

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

CORRESPONDENCE

RELATING TO

CURRENCY QUESTIONS,

No. 1.

(Confidential.)

SIR,

COLONIAL OFFICE to TREASURY.

[Answered by No. 2.]

Downing Street, 15th April, 1903. Wrra reference to your letter of the 2nd October, I am directed by Mr. Secretary Chamberlain to transmit to you, to be laid before the Lords Commis- sioners of the Treasury, two copies of the report, minutes of evidence, and appen- dices, † submitted to him by the Committee appointed to enquire into the expedi- ency and practicability of introducing a gold standard of currency in the Straits Settlements and the neighbouring Malay States.

2 Mr. Chamberlain's views on the report are contained in the despatchest to the Governor of the Straits settlements of which drafts are enclosed, and I am to enquire whether their Lordships concur in the terms of these drafts. As the matter is pressing, I am to ask that the papers may have their Lordships' earliest consideration.

3. If their Lordships concur in the course proposed, I am to ask if they will be good enough to cause the draft of the necessary Order in Council to be prepared, providing (a) for the creation of a Straits Settlements dollar; (b) for empowering the Governor, by proclamation, to make this dollar legal tender in the Colony at a date to be approved by the Secretary of State, concurrently with the Mexican and British dollars, which are already legal tender; and (c) for empowering the Governor by a subsequent proclamation, at a date to be approved by the Secretary of State, to declare that Mexican and British dollars shall no longer be legal tender in the Colony. Although this Order in Council should not be issued until it is finally decided to introduce the new currency, it is desirable that it should be prepared beforehand, so as to be ready at the earliest possible moment when

necessary.

4. I am also to ask whether their Lordships will, in the meantime, confer with the Deputy Master of the Mint with regard to the design for the proposed new coin. On this point I am to enclose copy of a letter from the Mint, dated 15th March, 1902,§ and to suggest that, as in the case of Straits Settlements subsidiary coins, the obverse of the new dollar might bear the crowned effigy of the King already approved for Colonial coinages with the legend "Edward VII.. King and

• Not printed. † [Od. 1556] and [Od. 1585] of 1903. ↑ See Nos. 8 and 4. § 10694: not printed.

81104

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

THCO. 882

9

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED NAVIDERAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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