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سم
FOREIGN OFFICE, S.*.I.
16th June, 1942.
(F 4237/888/10)
Dear Houd.
Thanks for your letter FP.47/143 of 5th June in connexion with communications between this country and missionaries in China.
You are right in supposing that it would be illegal for any person in this country to address any communication to another person in enemy or enemy-occupied territory c/o a third person in Allied or neutral territory unless the third person had been duly authorised to act in that capacity, I gather that this can be done by the issue of a notice by a Secretary of State and of an authority to the Postmaster General to accept such correspondence through the post for transmission to enemy or enemy-occupied territory.
The real difficulty in connexion with postal communic- ations with China is the inability to delimit accurately the area of occupied and Free China respectively, and it is true that within the Post Office definition of occupied China there is a relatively large part of territory which is in fact not actually in Japanese occupation. An accurate definition of occupied China, however, is impracticable owing to lack of the necessary information together with the fluctuating nature of Japanese occupation.
As I see it, there are two aspects of the problem: (a) that relating to territory which is known to be occupied by the Japanese, and (b) that relating to territory about
B. Floud, Esq.
Ministry of Information.
/which
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