CO129-497 - Public Offices - 1926 — Page 279

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published rate for the sale of Telegraphie Tramfers by the > Banks as the basis for salaulating the official rate. The

Chancellor of the Exchequer points out to the Board that the adoption of this mode of caloplating the official rate of the dollar does not satisfy the established general principle that public servante abroad should receive the full equivalent, but no more, of the amounts due to them in British qurrency for the reason that the Banks' tuying rate for sterling is less favourable to the seller of sterling than their selling rate, and their customers can only turn sterling into dollars at the former rate; the result is that a continuing loss is incurred

by the Treasury Chest Fund, which issues at the official rate (based on the selling rate) dollars acquired at rates

approximating to the buying rate.

3.

In these circumstances the Chancellor of the

Exchequer proposes taat the rate used should be the average selling rate (ascertained as at present) with a fractional addition representing the difference between that rate and the rate for the purchase of Telegraphic Transfers (as ascertained by the rates obtained by the Treasury Chest Officer on the Occasions when he raises dollars by the sale of Telegraphie Transfers for the supply of the Chest)- The fraction to be

added will be revised from time to time in the light of the Telegraphie Transfer rates setually obtained. The official rats of the dollar for any month will therefore be the average of the daily published selling rates (calculated over the same monthly period, and certified by the bankers to the Cheat in the same manner as heretofore) with the above fractional

addition.

4.