(F 1666/376/G)
CONFIDENTIAL
FOREIGN OFFICE, S. W. 1.
20th February, 1947.
10727
Dear Mayle,
As requested by you in our telephone conver- sation on the 18th February, I have sent a reminder to Nanking about the Liaison Officer at Hong Kong and enclose a copy of the telegram for your information.
I understood you to suggest in our talk that the terms of the Colonial Secretary's reply to a Parliamentary Question on this subject on the 27th January committed us to appointing a Foreign Service officer to this post. I have now had an opportunity of looking up the papers, and I am afraid I cannot agree with your interpretation.
When the draft reply to the Parliamentary Question was being considered by Miss Ruston in consultation with the Foreign Office, I asked Mr. Scott to telephone to Miss Ruston (in response to the latter's enquiry as to our views) suggesting that the Colonial Secretary's reply on the question of a political adviser should be on the lines that His Majesty's Government have accepted in principle the Governor's recommendation that an adviser on relations between Hong Kong and China should be appointed, and that steps are now under consideration to implement that recommendation. I subsequently agreed by telephone to Miss Ruston's suggestion (made, I think, at Sir Thomas Lloyd's request) that
N. L. Mayle, Esq.,
Colonial Office.
the