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should issue visas on affidavits, but the Communists are not likely to accept the inference that passports issued by them are no good.
There is another side to it as well. Given the present Communist insistence that our consuls are private individuals it is doubtful whether Chinese citizens would be allowed to go to them for travel documentation. We have knowledge of cases in which Communist officials at least have abandoned official journeys rather than apply for a visa to a foreign consul.
We are therefore inclined to think that the imposition of visa requirements at the present stage might embarrass us and make it difficult for respectable Chinese to enter Hong Kong, possibly to the detriment of the Colony's economy (in which connexion please see paragraph 2 of Nanking telegram 1358, of which a copy was sent to you under our reference F 12808/10111/10).
I should perhaps add that there is a difficulty on a point of detail, in that we might not be able to send confidential instructions on the subject to our posts in Communist China.
Yours sincerely отель
(P.D. Coates)
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