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BE
WRITTEN
IN
THIS
MARGIN.
Registry
No.F 4858/1147/G
Page 263
FOREIGN OFFICE, S.W.1.
August, 1945.
Despatched
M.
269
SECRET
Draft.
Washington
Telegram
No.
Date.
Cypher. O.T.P.
Special Political Distribution
Repeat to Chunging
No.
Mr. Dening, Kandy. NO.
At present Hong Kong is in the operational
sphere of Chiang Kai-shek. We have to be prepared
therefore for the contingency of the Colony being
Liberated by Chinese Forces.
2.
It is in that event important that we should
be able to assume the administration of this
British Colony as soon as the military situation
allows, and obtain an agreement that from the
butset of any initial period of military
administration our Civil Affairs policies should
be accepted and that the civil Affairs
administration should be conducted by British
personnel.
B. At present we have no understanding with the
Chinese Government (as we have with the U.S..
Goverment under paragraph 6 of the Charter of
the Combined Civil Affairs Committee) in respect
of their acceptance of British Civil Affairs
policies in any British territory included in.
their operational sphere. An embarrassing
situation may therefore arise in the even of
Hong Kong being liberated by Chinese Forces unless
there is clear agreement with Chiang Kai-shek, in
advance, as to our role in the administration of
Hong Kong.
General Wedemeyer's position as Chief of
Staff to the Generalissimo is such that any
agreement of this nature and the measures
hecessary to implement it, would in practice
require/
NOTHING
TO
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