C.O.
REGISTERED No.
54297/1/47
DRAFT AND RECORD COPYonial office,
LETTER SENT
Church House,
12%
Great Smith Street,
8. W. 1.
DATE
3rd November, 1947.
DRAFT
MR. Mayle
MR.
MR.
SECRET
Чир
ENCLOSURES
FURTHER ACTION
Anid. (9).
We have had from the Foreign office copies of correspondence between Lamb, at the British Embassy, Nanking, and MacDougall concerning the two members of the Kwangtung Provincial Peace Preservation Corps, who are imprisoned in Hong Kong.
We should be interested to know what decision was taken on the suggestion which Lamb put forward in his letter of the 25th August that
the unserved part of the sentences of the above men might be remitted as an act of clemency and in token of good will on your assumption of the Administration.
Perhaps I might say that the suggestion- appeared to us to be open to two very strong objections. The first is the implication that the remission of sentences for crimes committed in a British Colony is something that may be determined having regard to purely extraneous political considerations. The second is that if these sentences were to be remitted after Vice-Minister George Yeh's fanatical outburst, it would be extremely difficult to convince the Chinese that this was not done as the result of his display, with the consequence that they would be encouraged
To
SIR ALEXANDER GRANTHAM, K.C.M.G.
EXANDER
[4556B] Wt. 26930/440 50m. 9/45 C.N.Ld. 748
to