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HMG refused to accept Chiang's proposal that he delegate his power to the Officer Commanding the British Forces,
and insisted that the Japanese surrender would be
accepted by the British Officer in command of the British Force with Chinese and US Officers delegated by Chiang in attendance at the surrender ceremony as representatives of the Supreme Commander of the China theatre.
In a
memorandum dated 19 August 1945 sent to the Chinese Government, HMG made clear its view that "irrespective of the confines of an operational theatre, wherever a Sovereign Power has sufficient forces available, it should resume its authority and accept the Japanese surrender there". In the event,
In the event, Admiral Harcourt, Head of the Military Administration set up in Hong Kong, received
the Japanese surrender on behalf of both China and Britain.
CHINESE WARTIME ATTITUDES
8. The Nationalist Chinese, during the war years, nourished the expectation that Hong Kong, Kowloon and the leased territories would be returned to China after
the war.
They were partly encouraged in this assumption by US support. Doubtless, also, the informal indications that HMG gave, while refusing to commit itself officially, that the question of the leased territories might be re- considered once the war with Japan was over, may have further encouraged them. This expectation may account in
part for China's restrained reactions towards the
resumption of British authority in Hong Kong on the conclusion of hostilities. At the time of Japanese surrender, the Nationalist Chinese Government was at pains to point out that it regarded Hong Kong and the leased territories as matters which would require eventual settlement through diplomatic channels. It would not take advantage, it said, of Japan's surrender to establish possession of Hong Kong. Chiang Kai-shek, speaking on 24 August 1945, accepted that the present status of Hong Kong was regulated by treaty and undertook that changes in
/future
(F5589/G/1147
23.8.45)
(F6413/G/1147
6.9.45)
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