CO129-560-18 Bank balances- six monthly returns of deposits 12-1-1937 - 27-5-1938 — Page 8

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Colonial Secretary's Office,

Hong Kong.

27th May, 1938.

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Dear Gent,

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Many thanks for your letter of the 20th of April about the Hong Kong Government's bank balances. keep very much in mind the question of the most profitable use of our balances. We can earn here only 1% on current account and 2% on fixed deposits (i.e. fixed for 12 months) and it pays us to keep as much as possible with the Crown Agents who can deposit it in the Joint Colonial Fund and

earn 2%, while the money is in effect withdrawable on demand.

In general principle, therefore, I aim at

keeping in the Colony only the minimum necessary for current transactions and at remitting any surplus over that minimum to the Crown Agents. Up to the end of last year I was carrying out that policy fairly consistently, but it so happens that in recent months a number of factors have led

to our local balances increasing. On the 31st of December our current account balance was $1,547,810.

D.S.O.,

G. E. J. Gent, Esq., 0.B.E., D. S. O., M.C.,

Colonial Office,

London.

On the 23rd

May