TNAG-0007-FCO40-43-Governorship-of-Hong-Kong-1968 — Page 80

D4. 32855 Fd (4200)

NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN

Effects of Devaluation

3. In the second sub-paragraph of Paragraph 2

(i) of your letter of 27 February you said

"We still prefer to retain the traditional

principle that territories are primarily

responsible for their Governor's salary etc."

The territory expresses these salaries etc.

in its estimates in local currency. The Governor was, of course, notified/them/in his Letter of Appointment (in sterling. So

long as the original parity between sterling and

the currency of the various territories remained

as it was, there was no problem. But five

Governors were affected by devaluation, namely

Bahamas, Fiji, Hong Kong, Swaziland and the

Western Pacific. The position was doubly

complicated in the case of the Governor of Fiji because his letter of Appointment expressed

his emoluments in terms of both sterling and

Fijian pounds and has manifestly now become a

nonsense. I think that the simplest way of

dealing with this problem is to amend the sums in the letters of Appointment to conform with the sums in local currency which appear in

the estimates of the territories concerned;

should

and I shall be grateful for your confirmation

that this is in order.

The

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