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FOREIGN OFFICE, S. W. 1.
3rd September, 1945.
32
(F 5847/1147/G)
PERSONAL
TOP SECHT
Dear Horace,
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 Hong Kong, you ought to know 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 ofiicial 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 Covernment military proceedings for the surrender of Hong Kong and political questions affecting Hong Kong had no conexion with one another. This seems a rather elastic interpretation; still, it is something that V. Soong should so interpret this cryptic remark.
Yours ever,
(J.C.Sterndale Bennett)
Sir Horace Seymour, K.C.M.G., C.V.0.,
Chungking.
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