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as the occasion requires.
The Foreign Office have asked us for our views, and we should naturally wish to have your comments before we answer them. You may, of course, prefer to defer consideration until you return to Hong Kong, in which case we will arrange for a suitable despatch on the subject to be sent to Hong Kong, to reach there as soon as possible after your arrival.
Perhaps I may say that we entirely agree that something should be done to ensure that officers of the Hong Kong Service are in a position to acquaint themselves fully with the "Chinese scene" on their immediate borders and as far us possible beyond, and are thus better able than they were before to take external Chinese factors into full account, as necessary, in their daily work. Whether this can be achieved, either wholly or in part, by some sort of external affairs organisation within the Hong Kong Service, either on the lines suggested by Keswick, or on those suggested by the Foreign Office, is one of the points on which, we would welcome your opinion. One possibility would be to try to find an officer with the same breadth of outlook and familiarity with Chinese as Colonel Furcell of the Malay Service. If such an officer can be found, either within or without the Hong Kong Service, for the office of Secretary for Chinese Affairs (the title as it stands seems appropriate except for its limited association in the past, and it is doubtful whether it is necessary at present to include responsibility for relations with America and other countries at this stage), considera- tion might be given to the appointment of two assistant officers under him; one from the ranks of
the