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refugees, etc. in China.
As regards China, we have recently been
asked by the Foreign Office to refund the sum of £250,000
on account of what has already been spent there. This
adjustment has however not yet been made because it
amounts to more than the balance in the hands of the
Crown Agents.
The vagaries of the monetary situation in China
have brought the amount of practical relief afforded
in China to a point where it is out of
all proportion to the amount of sterling paid
out which, on the basis of the internal purchasing
power of the Chinese dollar which is somewhere
in the neighbourhood of one-eighth of a penny,
should not exceed £15,000.
In view of the understanding in the past
that the Treasury would assume the burden when the
resources of the Government of Hong Kong were
+
no longer in a position to carry on unaided, we
assume that you will now be prepared to authorise
the balance of expenditure over revenue to be
met from the United Kingdom Exchequer. As
indicated above, the deficit, although largely
occasioned by payments in the sterling area,
Hong Kong, and Macao, has been accelerated by
commitments in China swollen by an
exchange rate in which His Majesty's
Government presumably have good reasons
for acquiescence.
As
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