ENG-1946 — Page 39

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Nederlandsch-Indische Handelsbank Netherlands Trading Society Banque Belge pour l'Etranger Banque de l'Indo-Chine

Bank of China

Bank of Communications

Bank of Canton

Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank Bank of East Asia

Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation

Chinese Postal Remittances and Savings Bank Farmers Bank of China

China and South Seas Bank.

In addition to these incorporated banks, there are in the Colony many Chinese banks which handle a considerable volume of remittances from Chinese living overseas to their relations in China.

Irregular Issue of Notes by the Japanese.

On the liberation of the Colony, Government had to consider the position which had arisen from the seizure and issue by the Japanese authorities in Hong Kong, during the occupation of the Colony, of a large number of previously unissued notes mainly of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank- ing Corporation. When information was first received during the war of the irregular issue of these notes His Majesty's Government had issued

had issued a warning through the Chinese Government to the effect that the notes might not in due course be recognised as legal tender in Hong Kong, and on the liberation of the Colony notes of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation of denominations of over ten dollars and within the range of certain serial numbers were excluded from recognition as legal tender by the Military Administration. The position was complicated by the action of counterfeiters who found it possible to alter the serial numbers, the date of issue and even the signatures on the Japanese-issued notes. On April 2nd, 1946, after consultation between the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and the Military Administration, the "duress notes" issued from that bank were honoured by the bank and admitted as legal tender by the Administration. All doubts concerning the legal status of the notes were removed by the Bank Notes and Certificates of Indebtedness Ordinance, 1946, which pro- vided for their validation notwithstanding any irregularity in the manner of their issue and contained the terms and condi- tions of the agreement whereby the bank and the Government shared the liabilities incurred by their recognition. The ordinance did not apply to the notes of the other two note- issuing banks which were issued or put into circulation during the period of enemy occupation and negotiations on the subject were still in progress at the end of the year.

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