N°
302.
My Lord,
r co
Rec
63985
R & NOV 19
393
cotă
GOVERNMENT HOUSE.
HONGKONG. 18th September, 1919.
2.
I have the honour to inform Your Lordship
that for some weeks past considerable inconvenience has bee
caused to the public in this Colony by the scarcity of sub-
-sidiary coin, owing either to the hoarding of such coin or to
its being exported to Canton, where it commands a premium.
This Government during recent years has expended lar e sums of money in buying up and selling to India
at bullion value the excess subsidiary coinage to the face
value of over 85,000,000, with the result that for some time past and up to a short time ago parity had been established. Towards the end of August the loss of subsidiary coin rose to several thousand dollars a day, but by prohibiting the
export this has been checked to a great extent.
3.
It is not in the public interest that the subsidiary coinage should be used for circulation outside the Colony, and the only effective method of preventing this in future is to reduce the fineness of these coins so as to render their export unprofitable, I have discussed the matter with the Treasurer, and the Executive Council on which the Chief Manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation has a gent, and they are unanimously of the opinion, in which I concur, that the fineness of the 20 cent and 10 cent pieces should be reduced from 800 to 600, the weight and size
RIGHT HONOURABLE
VISCOUNT MILNER, G.C.B.,
&c.,
&c...
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