CO129-605-1 Annual Accounts- 1946-7 9-9-1948 - 14-3-1949 — Page 6

PS

Tel. No.: WHIteball 1234

NATIONAL

FORD

SCHEME

MEN

Your Referen54126/2/1/48

Treasury ReferenceL.F.16/10/02

S

TREASURY CHAMBERS, 6

GREAT GEORGE STREET,

LONDON, S.W.1.

14th March, 1949.

DISABLED

30 on

16

6503 A/CS

310m

650B A/CS

Dear Bryant,

Please refer to your letter of 22nd November enclosing an audited copy of the Hong Kong Annual Account for 1946/47. I am sorry for the delay in replying, but the papers were overlaid and have just come to light. I am somewhat at a loss to under- stand why you plead your letter to Serpell of the 20th May as a reason for not informing us in your covering letter that (subject to any exceptions noted) the Account does not include any expenditure for which to the best of your knowledge and belief Treasury sanction was required according to your understanding of the nature of the control subsisting in 1946/7. It was in the light of the facts which you mentioned in your letter to Serpell of the 20th May, and after consultation with the Treasury Officer of Accounts, that we made this request in Bancroft's letter of 23rd June. It is our view that the point you now re-open was settled between us and, in consequence, it is necessary to obtain the assurances which Bancroft mentioned in his letter of the 23rd of June.

I should be grateful for a statement from you on the lines indicated in Bancroft's letter.

Yours sincerely,

G. Bryant, Esq.,

Colonial Office,