572526-1930-Report-of-Currency-Committee-1930 — Page 1

THE HONG KONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, AUGUST 1, 1930. 383

COLONIAL SECretary's DepARTMENT.

No. 483. The following report presented to Government by the Currency Com- mittee, 1930, is published for information.

1st August, 1937.

E. R. HALLIFAX,

Colonial Secretary.

REPORT OF CURRENCY COMMITTEE, 1930.

Your Excellency,

We, the Currency Committee appointed by Your Excellency's predecessor, the Hon. Mr. W. T. Southorn, c.M.G., Officer Administering the Government, have the honour to submit for Your Excellency's consideration the following report :-

INTRODUCTORY.

General.

1. We were appointed on the 28th of April, 1930, to make investigation with a view to supplying answers to the following questions, which represented our terms of reference :-

(a) Is the present currency the most advantageous for the purposes of

the trade of this Colony?

(b) In what respects, if any, is the present currency situation in the

Colony unsatisfactory?

(c) If the situation is unsatisfactory in what way can it be remedied? (d) Is the premium on notes over silver detrimental to the prosperity of the Colony? If so can it be controlled and by what means? (e) Is the linking of the currency with silver advantageous to the

Colony? If so can it be more closely linked?

(f) Is it desirable in the interests of the Colony that the value of the dollar be stabilised? If so can any effective steps be taken to that end?

2. We issued in the newspapers a general invitation to the public to put for- ward their views and support them, if required, by oral evidence; we regret however to have to record our disappointment that this advertisement evoked only the most meagre response, and the opportunity thus offered was not availed of at all by ad- vocates of a stabilised currency. We also issued individual invitations to persons who, we considered, were specially qualified to shed light on various aspects of the subject, and who were representative of all interested sections of the community. We received the written views of many of the principal merchants' and bankers' associations both Chinese and European in the Colony. We have also had before us the report of the Straits Currency Committee of 1903, of the Royal Commission on Indian Currency and Finance of 1926, and of the recent Kemmerer Commission in China. In all we have heard ten representative witnesses orally and held nine meet- ings.