MINUTES.
MINUTES NOT TO BE WRITTEN ON THIS SIDE.
**
SECRET.
HONGKONG.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
20th March, 1924.
185
sir.
With reference to the Duke of Devonshire's secret despatch of the 13th December, I have the honour to inform you ¦ P/59975/23 that such measures as are considered possible are being taken
for intercepting correspondence in the Post Office without arousing the suspicions of the sorting staff, and in particular for dealing with correspondence from Europe addressed to the person mentioned in paragraph 5 of the despatch. As regards His Grace's telegram of 8th January, I do not consider that
there is any danger whatever of popular feeling being aroused
by the adoption of measures of this kind, even if the fact
became known, but, as I have indicated in my secret despatch of 1699/the 12th March the practical difficulties are such as to make
it extremely unlikely that any examination will have really
effective results.
Sou
de
2. The case of telegrams also presents great
difficulties. This Government, which has no local telegraph
system, has no means of discovering to what person a tele-
graphic address on a cablegram refers and the Superintendent
of the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company states that he is
forbidden by the Company's rules to give any information as
to telegraphic addresses or as to the contents of telegrama
except under an Order of Court. Possibly you can induce the
Head Office of the Company to instruct the Superintendent here
to supply this Government with the information which it
desires on the understanding taat no public use is to be made
RIGHT HONOURABLE
J. H. THOMAS, M.P.,
80.
&c..