The Under Secretary of state
Colonial Office f
51
Copy.
(F8149/1147/10)
No. 1030 (73/342/45)
Copied to:
Commander-in-Chief, Hongkong,
No. 8
Mr. MacDougall, Hongkong, U/n.
With the Compilments
of the
Under Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs
Dear Department,
68
British Embassy,
Chungking.
27th September, 1945.
23 OCT 1940
In our letter No. 964 of the 6th September we transmitted two items from the local vernacular daily, Ta Kung Pao, concerning Hong Kong, in particular connection with the Generalissimo's references to this topic in the course of his address to the Supreme National Defence Council and the Central Executive Council on 24th August. In the concluding paragraph we volunteered the opinion that the question of Hong Kong and its rendition would not be allowed by China's publicity organs to recede into the background. This rather safe prognostication has been duly justified, a suitable occasion for bringing up the subject being of course afforded by the Japanese surrender at Hong Kong.
2. The Ta Kung Pao, in particular, has carried several
• contributions in this context from their special correspondent on board H.M.S. "Duke of York", Daniel Lee, of which a precis of the most recent is enclosed by way of illustration. On the whole the tone of Mr. Lee's reports have been friendly,
though we suspect that he has made several unsubstantiated statements on the assumption that they might gain general credence from their official date-line. For example, in the edition of 17th September he claims to gather from non-official sources that His Majesty's
Government had decided to return to China the "New territory" but to retain the old Kowloon area and the island, and in another article quotes Admiral Sir C.H.J. Harcourt as stating that the island of Hong Kong was of no use by itself, but depended entirely on Kowloon.
3. In the present article you will not fail to notice the final reference to Macao as the hiding place of opium runners. This is an interesting echo of the press diatribe against this Portuguese colony relayed to the Foreign Office in our despatch 962 of September 10th. There can be little doubt that the public in China are being carefully nursed for a nation-wide agitation for the rendition of Macao and Kowloon, and eventually also of Hong Kong. It is naturally to the advance of the press to pander to such a policy.
Far Eastern Department,
Foreign Office,
London, S.W.1.
Yours ever,
CHANCERY.