X
1. H. K. H.K.
smalogers is not really the night relation in this case,
1744
APH.
Sw
Jel 476
3.6.41 2
In
I do not regard the proposal in this telegram as being at all the proper way to deal with this "more than usually grave case of defiance". the first place it seems very doubtful of success. The Ministry of War Transport tell me that the British Corporation Register of Shipping and Aircraft is a body somewhat analogous to Lloyds, i.e. it is an approved body whose decisions on marine surveying are accepted by the Ministry. But the only hold which the Corporation can have over Mr. Black is the economic control of an employer over his employee. In this case since Mr. Black is also a partner intre firm, which claims to be so busily engaged as to require his wife's services as a clerk, this control is not likely to be very effective, or the influence of the Corporation very powerful.
In any case it is wrong in principle that Government should get employers to blackmail their employees into due observance of the law. In the present instance of evacuation, moreover, it has been publicly stated that the Hong Kong Government is acting under the orders of the War Cabinet, and it makes it the more ludicrous that to put these orders into effect it should be necessary for H.M.G. to ask for the co-operation of the British Corporation Register (who in any case are not likely to have strong feelings in the matter). To do so will create an impression that those responsible for the evacuation have not the courage of their convictions, and are afraid to take action openly, and since Mr. and Mrs. Black are likely to be as loud-spoken in their complaints as other malcontents with the evacuation have been in the past, this impression is likely to be made public property in Hong Kong.
The case is one which must be attracting a good deal of attention in Hong Kong. It has, rightly or wrongly, been assumed in many quarters there that the remnant of women who escaped evacuation by the suspension of the scheme have shown that disobedience was rewarded with success. The factor influencing the decision here to suspend evacuation and let the recalcitrants stay was that from the strategic point of view, the main issue in the case, their numbers were so small as to make it not worth our while to bother about them. If Mrs. Black, on the other hand, succeeds in avoiding re-evacuation there will be plenty of attempts to follow her example, and the sooner and the more directly the Government take steps to see that she leaves the Colony the better.
lines.
I attach a tentative draft reply on these
WBL Jaman
5.6.41.
The HK Gort
anticiand
AMG han bei
Counse
in the Legislativ
for failing to see that the orders fo
tracciation eve
complied with — once the
ordes had been given.
I fully agree with M Manco