D42/3
TOP SECRET
830
Downing Street, st
3.W.1.
25. May, 1945.
54
My dear Sterndale Bennett,
t
Since I wrote to you (reference as above) on the 27th April about the proposals put forward by the Ambassador in Chungking for the establishment of a British Liaison Mission with the Chinese Forces, we have received copies of Sir H. Seymour's further despatches on this matter dated 12th April and 17th April.
We welcome the proposals made in
despatch No. F.2711/917/10 of the 17th April both on the general ground of the desirability of increasing British influence in China and because any arrangements such as that suggested in paragraph 9 for British liaison with the forces destined to liberate Hong Kong would have our warm support.
The proposals put forward in this despatch supersede we assume the suggestion made by General Olmsted that a British Economic Liaison Officer should be appointed to General Olmsted's section at United States Army Headquarters, and in fact the proposed Liaison Mission would provide inter alia the Economic Liaison which was the object of the General's proposal, but perhaps this point might be confirmed.
J.C. STERNDALE BENNETT, ESQ., C.M.G., M.C.
We/