0018
2
cms
Ref.:
CO 537/1649
THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
los
N
restrictions. Further information is given in the enclosed Terms and Conditions of supply of National Archives' leaflet Please note that this copy is supplied subject to the National Archives' terms and conditions and that your use of it may be subject to copyright;
000 17
By reason or the number of papers that have been transferred from this file and the consequent gaps
I in the numbering I 1ind this file very confusing. have therefore renumbered it from the beginning.
7.1.46
m
7. 1 Tesunck on
Нор Коня
I F.O. (G.V. Ktson), F11804/1144/10
cnclosing
hol
Due no doubt to this confusion no action has been taken on (1). It is too late now to acknowledge the Foreign Orlice letter and no action is required on Mr. Keswick's general remarks about the future of Hong Kong. Paragraphs 3, 4, 5 and 6 of his memorandum are however relevant to the consideration that is now being given to a new Constitution in Hong Kong and I have therefore had that section extracted together with paragraphs 2 and 3 of Mr. Kitson's covering letter and placed on the Constitution file 54145/4.
Copies
of both extracts are being sent to the Governor on that file.
1
2
Ref.:
CO 537/1649
THE NATIONAL ARCHIVËS
restrictions Further information is given in the enclosed Terms and Conditions of supply of National Archives' leaflet Please note that this copy is supplied subject to the National Archives' terms and conditions and that your use of it may be subject to copyright
4.
Charles Coalée
3
enclosing extaree's -/dausfaller
31.1.46
to
ssorg
(2) (formerly 5) has also not been acknowledged.
In a minute dated 20th of May 1946, however, Mr. Mayle agreed with Mr. Rogers that it was too late to do so then.
I have no knowledge or the writer of (2) Mr. Charles Costés - but he states that he is a missionary and journalist of twenty years experience in China, and that he is the author of publications on "Slavery". Mr. Coates advocates that Hong Kong should not return to Chinese sovereignty because:
(a) of "the unwillingness for such a course shown by the Chinese community in Hong Kong itself"
(b)
of the fact that Hong Kong has led the way
in the suppression of Mui-Tsai and provides
e salutary contrast to China where he maintains that girl-slavery still persists
He adds that throughout the continent.
Hong Kong guards the chief gateway to the South Seas through which these children would be shipped as "victims of the yellow slave trade".
As the enclosure to (2) which consists of extracts from a book which Mr. Costes is about to publish on the subject of Chinese Slavery is entirely concerned with this subject I have detached it from the covering letter and arranged for its registration on file 55019 dealing with Mui-Tsai.
fi G. Moss
28.1.46
(3) (formerly 6) is a letter from Sir George Moss (formerly Consul-General Hankow) written last
January in which he advocates that we should take the initiative in discussing the future of Hong Kong with the Chinese Government. He makes this proposal
/however