88
4.
As regarūs
-ree kioe" included in item
A (1) above, I would refer to my savingram lio. 182 of
9th August, 1948 enclosing a memorandum on this subject,
and to your reply No. 92 of 1st November 1948,
Since that
corre spanience took place, further consideration has been
given to this problem which for convenience is sumarised
below, with the addition of certain aspects which now
appear to be relevant. Shortly after the surrender of
Thailand, supplies of rice estimated to be worth £1,707,600
were obtained from that territory without payment and
were shipped to India, Halaya, Hong Kong, Borneo
territories, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The amount
shipped to Hong Kong was worth £516,700. It is assumed
that the rice was sold and presumably the proceeds of
sale in Hong Kọng are included in the total of items
C (a) and (b) of para. 3 above, subject to any further
information you may be able to give na a result of the
enquiry at the end of that paragraph,
un the argumɲɔtion
that the proceeds had been país over to B.A.G., it was
stated in my savingram of 9th August 1948, that the
prooeeds should be distributed, not on the basis of actual.
receipts, but in the same proportions as the I.E.F.C.
allocation of rice from S.E, asia sources to the countries
concerned. It would obviously not be fair that each
territory shoul: be credited with the value of the
Ciamɛse rice actually received by that territory, since the
distribution amongst the above territories was purely a
matter of convenience at the time and was not on the basis
of any entitlement of each territory to food supplies at
that time, or on the basis of entitlement to shores of
reparations from Thailand.
On the basis of 1,5,F.0.
allocations,