CO129-555-17 Smuggling of counterfeit coins made in China 5-12-1935 - 19-2-1936 — Page 5

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coin (including Section 23), and enacting

that the Sections of the 1861 Act which

constitute the code in respect of offences against

the King's coin shall hereafter apply equally

to offences against foreign coin. One of the

effects of the new law is therefore to make

no

longer a punishable offence the simple possession

of counterfeit or foreign coin without guilty

knowledge or intent.

If therefore the Government of

Hong Kong amend their own Ordinance on similar

lines (as would be expected and as I think is

contemplated in our Circular of the 7th of December

1935) the result will be that the offence which the

Netherlands Minister complains is insufficiently

penalised in Hong Kong will in fact cease to be

penalised at all.

This rather strange result is

one which seems to me to call for further examination

and for careful consideration, and I am not at all

sure whether the representations of the Netherlands

Minister could properly be satisfied by the

retention of a special provision in the Hong Kong law

in of an offence and penalty which does not appear the

United Kingdom law or Colonial legislation generally

if the United Kingdom law is followed.

El Gent.

13th December, 1935.