PERSONAL
XXX
SECRET
AIR MAIL
acká
lo F.O.
wo.
asmy
B.17
brates
1. Disuss this witto FO.
Pur
up reply.
។
M.M.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
8th June 1938.
HONG KONG,
den Mr MacDonald,
I hope to be able to send you at the end of
this week a despatch covering a memorandum on the points
raised in your private and personal telegram of May 27th
relative to the extension or strengthening of the
British hold over the "New Territories"; I am afraid,
however, that when it comes to the question of the
consideration that might be paid to China "ad hoc"
there are so many "imponderabilia" in the calculation
that evaluation of the advantages to be gained thereby
is not possible.
In the meantime this is to let you know that
al
yesterday Cyril Rogers (Bank of England) Pines (Banking
Adviser to the Chinese Government) came to see me in the
evening. He spoke among other things of China's
desperate need for money to support her dollar and I
asked him what in his opinion was the least that would
serve that purpose. He mentioned £10,000,000 but added
that in his own view £20,000,000 was a more correct
answer.
I then asked him whether China would at this
moment consider selling the New Territories outright
to Great Britain, to which he replied that he thought
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
MALCOLM MACDONALD, P.C., M.P.