gratuitously provocative to the Chinese at
time when they are in no position to do
anything about it. You will no doubt have
heard from Sir Alexander Grantham, with
whom we discussed the position at length
before his departure, of the decision to
postpone for the present the question of
making such a statement. It was, however,
our understanding that the main reason for
the postponement was not that China was in
no position to take any action, but that the
statement was likely to give rise to actual
difficulties for His Majesty's Government
in the field of international relations,
I made this point to Kitson, and the Foreign
Office have now agreed with my comment. They
have added that a further reason was that
મ
Mr. Bevin was inclined to question whether any
statement would serve to reassure the Chinese
in Hong Kong as to our ability to withstand
pressure from China designed to undermine our
position in the Colony.
3. The second comment I made related to the
reference in the last paragraph but two of Kitson's
letter to the decision "not to pursue for the time
being, and until we can see more clearly what
is going to happen in China, the proposal to seek
from Ministers a decision on future policy in
regard to Hong Kong". So far as we could see from
our records there was never any decision here to
defer
question until we can see more clearly
et was
China.