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should make a steady and progressive effort to place its
legal tender currency at par but it was at the same time in
my view a wasteful method to receive that coin et par value
and demonetize it at a very high discount. It seems manifest-
-ly better to buy it at the discount value and save an
equivalent loss to the Treasury.
Government"
The alternative course proposed in
paragraph 5 is "to proceed by co-operation with the Chinese
(the impossibility of which has been more than
abundantly proved in our negotiations on this subject for as
Sir John Jordan points out in his Despatch of December 15th..
1910, (enclosure in yours of 26th. January, 1911.) the
interests of China are quite different from those of Hongkong
in this matter) "Chinese coins being allowed to circulate in
Hongkong, and Hongkong Subsidiary Coins continuing to enjoy
the currency they now possess in China. The Chinese Govern-
-mont would never agree to this proposal, and would be
amply justified in refusing in fact I have lately seen in
the local Press that the Viceroy of Canton has under consider-
-ation the exclusion of all foreign coins. If that step were
adopted,
Hongkong having meantime abandoned her efforts to
withdraw a portion of the redundant coin from year to year
the sudden fall in value of the legal tender currency would
no
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