CO129-446 - Others & Individuals - 1917 — Page 266

F. 9970.

INDIA OFFICE,

LONDON, S. W. 1.

2nd October 1917.

262

My dear Collins,

I have shown your letter of the 28th September to Abrahams and we should be sorry if the idea were given up. We quite see the point of Sir George Fiddes' objection to

the original suggestions as to terms. We might now discuss

with you an offer subject to the limiting considerations

which Sir G. Fiddes has in mind. I hope that we should be able without difficulty to come to terms on the basis of payment for the silver in rupee paper at a price for the silver based on the real market price. The real market price, of course, is not the quotation in London, where we have ceased to buy, but the lower price at San Francisco and in the East, which are now to us the real markets for purchases. We shall be prepared in due course to demonstrate the reasonableness of this from every point of view. Similarly the price at which rupee paper (or other rupee securities) would be valued for the purposes of the transactions would be the real market price.

Both these matters would be subjects for negotiation. you let us know how the above strikes Sir G. Fiddes?

Yours sincerely,

Will

A.E.Collins Esq, C.M.G.,

Colonial Office.

Frank.

Lucas