6 Hong Kong (Sir A. Grantham) s/o Personal - $19.5.45
Mr. Paskin
The minutes on 54145/P.Q.1/48 attached indicate the difficulties with which we were faced when Mr. Donner put down the question asking whether the Secretary of State for the Colonies could give an assurance concerning the policy and intentions of His Majesty's Government in
On that occasion it was, perhaps, fortunay to Hon
Kong.
that the Secretary of State was able to persuade Mr. Donner to withdraw his question, but we cannot, I think, count on being so fortunate in the future, and it may well be that some other question with the same object' may be put down before long. giving up of Hong Kong as the headquarters of the Admiral Commanding the Fleet in those waters, recently announced in the Press, may perhaps prompt such a question.
The
You will remember that in 1947 a memorandum was prepared for the Cabinet (see No. 104 on the 1947 file below) on this very matter, but that, at that time (see the Secretary of State's minute of the 12th May also on the 1947 file), it was decided that we could make no further progress with the paper. While it is true that the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs still considers that "it would be very undesirable to have a question on Hong Kong until Ministers have had time to consider the problem in all its implications", the Governor of Hong Kong, as recently as in his letter of the 19th May to me attached, again emphasises the fact that the Colony's attitude on the financial settlement is a general reflection of the critical view which they take of H.M.G. so far as Hong Kong is concerned, the main cause of which is H.M.G.'s refusal to make a statement on the future of Hong Kong. In the Governor's own words "This makes them fear that, in a showdown with the Chinese, H.M.G. will climb down and desert the Colony". As you know, Lord Listowel was pressed hard on this point when he was in Hong Kong, but then again, owing to the attitude of the Foreign Office, he had to be told that he would have to refuse to make any statement. All this suggests to me that the time has really come for this matter to be taken up in the Cabinet (if the Secretary of State is willing to agree to that course in consultation with Mr. Bevin on the basis of
"A" of his letter of the 9th June on the P.. file attached.)
our
From one point of view it is, perhaps, a pity that Mr. Donner agreed to withdraw his question, as the reply contemplated in the event of his not agreeing to do so, while it does not go far enough from the Governor of Hong Kong's point of view, would perhaps have been better than no state- ment at all.
I am considering a reply to Sir A. Grantham's letter to me of the 19th May separately in the light of the Secretary of State's note attached to it.
Submitted for instructions please.
JBS
11.6.1948.
The attempt on the part of the Colonial Office to get some positive decision on policy as regards the retention of Hong Kong (and especially of the New Territories) in the face of a possibly determined effort (possibly supported by economic boycott, etc.,)
/on