CO129-316 - Governor Sir Blake - 1903 [1-4] — Page 548

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of

quiry here. This is recommended by the Executive

Council

the enquiry however to be not by the

Straits Committee but-by (which indeed has ceased

to exist) but by a Commission including two repre-

sentatives of the Chamber of Commerce of H.Kong,

representing the silver and gold advocates respec-

tively.

daviomly

The Gov. himself is against an enquiry. It

appears to me that an enquiry would be useless and

mischievous. It would cause a further fall in ex-

change and general unsettlement, and the possibil-

ity of gold being recommended appears quite out

of the question. I think i adn safely say that

Coa

all the members of the late Straits Committee re-

garded the divorce of the currency of Hong Kong

from that of China as impracticable, and that the

same view was expressed by all the witnesses who

* L(x)—50654—3000-12-01 54040-8000-3-02

touched on the point.

Even if a change in the currency of H.Kong

could possibly be recommended by a Commission, a

gold standard could not be set up in H.Kong in the

present divided state of public opinion. There

must be a greater approach to unanimity, in favour

of gold, whereas the present dominant feeling,

despite the vote of the Chamber of Commerce, is

certainly in favour of no change.

Hong Kong can do nothing at present but await

developments in China. Under the Treaty recently