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by popular sentiment) Gresham's law will operate in the opposite direction, i.e. to encourage the substitution of the new (overvalued) coins for the old coins which will be
rated at their intrinsic value only.
Indeed in Their Lordships' opinion the scheme is
a sound one and well calculated, if firmly administered by
the Central Government, to achieve success.
Nor do My Lords think it desirable that represen-
tations should be made to the Chinese Government with
respect to the coins, whether standard or subsidiary,
issued by the Colony which are now circulating in China.
The Wei Wu Pu have informed His Majesty's Chargé
d'Affaires at Pekin that such coins will, when the new
coinage is in circulation, be "treated in accordance with "the established practice of all nations".
My Lords understand this statement to mean that the circulation of such coins will be prohibited, and in as much as the adoption of a national system of currency dis- charges a treaty obligation which His Majesty's Govern- ment has pressed upon the Chinese Government They see no ground on which representations could be urged for the exceptional treatment of Hong Kong coins in the Empire. The displacement of foreign coins circulating
within its territories is in Their Lordships' opinion an operation which any Government is entitled to undertake, only such regard being paid to the convenience of the issuing Government as circumstances will permit.
It appears to This Board that the Government of Hong Kong could not reasonably ask more than that the
displacement
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