Ref: 54447/5/50
Your Ref: 120/overseas/300.
A44
B
The Church House,
Great Smith Street,
London, S.W.1.
20 December, 1950.
Dear Seymour,
I
Thank you for your letter of 28th November, about the requisitioned railway materials in respect of which Hong Kong have made a claim. am sorry to learn that you consider that final settlement of this matter will be delayed by the necessity of looking into the question of the scuttling of the S.S. "Haradavang" in Kowloon Harbour.
We naturally cannot comment fully on the possible effect of this scuttling on Hong Kong's claims as we have not got any information on the facts of the matter. At first sight however it seems to us that Hong Kong's claim cannot be affected by the scuttling. The position as we see it is that certain material was requisitioned by the Hong Kong War Supplies Board on behalf of the War Office; it was then delivered on board ship for shipment at the direction or the War office (or
(or their representatives). It seems to us that it cannot be maintained that any department of the Hong song Government had any responsibility for the material after it had been delivered on board ship and accepted on behalf of the War Office. It does not appear to us to matter whether the subsequent loss of the material (if in
Lt. Col. G.V.Seymour, 0.B.E.,
War Office,
Nuffield House,
Piccadilly,
W.1.
/fact