CO129-449 - Governor Sir May & Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1918 [7-9] — Page 484

Downing Street,

479

If september, 1918,

the

in the Secretary of State's telegram of 14th September, are exaggerated and looking at matters as a whole, risks involved in the adoption of that plan are less serious in our judgment than the consequences which would result to India and ourselves if the limited amount

of new siiver now available in Amerioa was diverted to

China.

For these reasons we must press for the adoption of

the original plan.

You

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

andy Instamont

Dear Addis,

We wrote to the Treasury and India Office

on Monday evening and have received replies from Ramsay and Abrahams this morning.

They cannot a roo

to the schema I suggested to you, Ramsay says that there is no prospect of the Treasury being able to obtain any substantial quantity of silver for China, if the irreducible necessities of India and this country. are to be supplied. He thinks that the objections expressed from Hong Kong to the proposals contained in your last message to Stabb are exaggerated and that the risks involved in the adoption of that plan are less serious than the consequences to India and our- selves if silver were diverted to China from the

limited amount of new silver now available in

America.

He says therefore that the Treasury must

presa

SIR CHARLES ADDIS.