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THIS
MARGIN.
Registry
No. F 5847/1147/G.
Page 40
تار
PERSONAL
J.F.B.
30/$
TOP SECRET.
Draft.
Sir H. Seymour,
Chungking.
(From Mr.
Sterndale Bennett)
hurtition
3018
Dear Horace,
3 Migquent, 1945.
F5557/167/6
With reference to paragraph 3 of Foreign
Office top secret telegram No. 933 of the 19th
August giving the exchange of telegrams which
passed between the Prime Minister and President
Truman on the subject of the surrender of
you cangled Wknow
Hong Kong, I should add that when the United
States Secretary of State informed T.V. Soong
of the contemplated action he stated "that it
did not in any way represent United States views
regarding the future status of Hong Kong".
Washington have now telegraphed to say that
according to a State Department official who
discussed Byrnes' remark with T.V. Soong himself, Soong apparently took Byrnes to mean, not that the
United States Government wished to raise the
question of the future status of Hong Kong, nor even that they considered it an open question; all that was intended, in Soong's opinion, was to
state that in the view of the United States
Government military proceedings for the surrender
of Hong Kong and political questions affecting
Hong Kong had no connexion with one another.
This seems a rather elastic interpretation;
still, it is something that T.V. Soong should so
interpret this cryptic remark.
Your
NOTHING
TO
BE
WRITTEN
IN
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