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serve as a channel of supplies to China and a refuge for
hundreds of thousands of displaced and largely destitute
Chinese people, and for numbers of foreign nationals in China.
5. Immediately after the war the conditions of law and
order and the well-developed mercantile services which Hong
Kong will provide for all alike will make a very special
contribution to the development of settled conditions in the
Par ŝast and to the re-opening of world trade with China.
6. His Majesty's Government bear a continuing
responsibility for the restoration of Hong Kong as a territory
of the British Commonwealth and all the more so since it has
been the victim of the full rigours of the enemy's aggression.
Attitude in conversations with Americans about Hong Kong.
7. No initiative on our side should be taken in raising
the question of Hong Kong. If the Americans on their side
express concern on this question it will be best to reply on
a challenging note and to ask whether that concern is based
to any extent on a belief that the Colony has been unwisely
administered or unfairly exploited in British interests. Our
critics can safely be challenged to disprove that Hong Kong
has been run to the benefit of nearly a million Chinese
inhabitants and to all countries having relations with Chins,
and that the opportunities it affords, in a material sense,
have been equally available to all nationalities.
8. Apart from this there seem to be four main points: -
(a)
The attitude of His Majesty's Government was made
clear in Parliament on the Eth November, 1944. (The
relevant extract from Hansard is attached.)
(6) any adjustment of the boundaries or of the
political status of Hong Kong would be a matter between
/Great
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