CO129-318 - Governor Sir Blake - 1903 [7-10] — Page 77

5070w/103

Hong Zong Cont.

Mov. Sir H.Blake

sir,

segy foly

76

28

105.

Mr. Collins

MI. Lucas

278

* drafts for conson.

I have the honour to ach. the receipt of

your conf. desp. of the 18th ult., on tue

subject of the coinage of critisa dollars.

You will have observed from the letter

from the Government of India enclosed in my

conf. desp. of the 22nd of May that the re-

quirements of the rupea currency have in the

past been placed before the demand for bri-

tish dollars, and in tuis respect it is only

proposed under the new Agreement to provide

expressly for the continuance of the past

practice. As regards the priority of the

new Straits Settlements dollars it is not

expected that the demands for this coinage

will be very large except during the initial

erioa, and as pointed out by the Managers

of the banks in the letter which accompan-

do 1e your desp. the proposed demonetization

ar

до

of the british dollar in the Straits 19 like-

ly to prevent any large demand for the coinage

british dollars for some time to come. More-

over thera appears to have been a considerable

over-demand for british dollars at the Indian

Mint (see last par. of the letter from the

I