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In these circumstances the normal Treasury control by leads and Subheads would seem to be impossible. As you say however we have consulted you in the past of practically all questions of principle and have obtained your approval of new commitments of any magnitude as they have arisen, and there should be no difficulty in our continuing to do so. You mention that you would like to be consulted on question of new appointments and increases of pay and we will bear this point in mind.
The immediate need is to meet the request from the Foreign Office for an advance of £250,000 in respect of the expenditure in Chungking. Before we can meet this we must ask for an advance from the vote of Credit. This is of course the biggest item of expenditure chargeable against Hong Kong funds, and the request for 2250,000 appears to be a reasonable one on the basis of the following figures supplied by the Embassy at Chungking.
Expenditure for year 31.12.42
c... $10,000,000
"
31.12.43
(estimated)
$40,000,000 $50,000,000
Aven assuming that the Foreign Office will not ask for an advance in respect of the March Quarter 1944 unt il after 31st March 1944, we may thus have to meet claims up to C.N. $50,000,000 during the current financial year.
At £ - C.N.880 this would equal about £600,000 or if, as we hope, we obtain the benefit of the diplomatic rate of $120 to £ it will equal about $400,000.
In these circumstances we trust that you will agree to the immediate advance from the Vote of Credit to enable us to meet the Foreign Office claim and will not expect an "estimate" in respect of the current financial year ending 31st March 1944.
As
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