With the Compliments
of the.
Under Seerotary of State
for Foreign Affairs
Copy.
10 MAY 19 C
(F 2496/917/10),
No, 411 (1/13B/45).
Colonial office
Mr Gent.
275-
copied
هنا
•
BRITISH EMBASSY, ?
CHUNGKING.
12th April, 1945.
BIT
Toy. DOT
SECRET
Sir,
DMI
JNI ACASI. Adk
In my telegram No. 357 of April 11th, I outlined a suggestion made by Brigadier General Olmsted, chief of the G5 section of United States Army Headquarters, China, that it would be useful to him were the services of a British military officer to be made available for consultation on problems arising out of the re-occupation of Chinese territory and, in particular, of British properties, in that territory. General Olmsted's views, which were first enunciated in a tentative fashion in a conversation with my Military Attachá, are elaborated in the enclosed memorandum of a discussion of the scheme between the General and my Counsellor.
2. You will observe that the project has not yet been cleared with General Wedemeyer (who returned to Chungking on April 10th) but there is, I think, little doubt that it will be approved. Meanwhile I am favourably impressed with the scheme and suggest that it should receive early and favourable consideration.
3. The most difficult problem may be the selection of a suitable person for the appointment. While it would undoubtedly be possible to appoint a relatively junior and inexperienced man to the job and to allow him to function merely as a sort of post office, I feel that it would be better from every point of view if it were possible to find a man who has had experience in China, especially in Shanghai and/or Hong Kong; his value would be still further increased if he had had practical experience in business or, for instance banking such as would give him a general insight into the scope and ramifications of British interests in China, If such a person can be found he should, in our opinion, be given the rank of Colonel or lieutenant-colonel which would give him sufficient seniority to speak with authority. It is difficult to Bssess what assistance he would need; but I do not think it would be necessary to appoint more than a clerk to his staff in the first instance and until we see how the scheme works out in practice.
4. Any officer appointed to the post would presumably be under either the British Military Mission or my Military Attaché for the purposes of discipline. As his work will be mainly connected with the provision of information about British civilian facilities for the planning sections of the Chinese and American commands, it would seem that his contacts at the London
The Right Honourable,
Anthony Eden, M.C., M.P.,
Foreign office,
London, S.W.1.
end/