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Mr. Coates, Foreign office, tells us that on Wednesday the 19th Lord Henderson is to speak for the Government on a motion by Lord Swinton calling attention to the state of foreign affairs. Lord Henderson is to speak early in the debate, the Lord Chancellor later summing up for the Government. Lord Henderson's speech is expected to last 35 to 40 minutes, of which about half the time will be spent on Germany. A number of other countries will be mentioned, one of which will be China. As will be seen, there will not be a great deal of time to allow China to be dealt with at length, but there will probably have to be at least a brief mention of Hong Kong. The
Foreign Office are thinking of suggesting something on the following lines as this reference:– out Hong Kap: -
"The Noble Lords will no doubt have taken note of the statement made in another place last month that H.M.G. appreciate the importance and value of Hong Kong and intend to maintain their position there".
They also have in mind to give Lord Henderson an explanatory note on the following lines:-
"This is a delicate question and the attitude of any Chinese Government towards British occupation of Hong Kong is likely to be the same. We must avoid unnecessarily provocative statements",
The Foreign Office wish to know whether we have any comments on their proposed statement and . explanatory note for Lord Henderson. The référence
to the statement made last month is of course to Mr. Mayhew's statement in the House of Commons on the 10th December (see column 792 in No. 34 of Volume 459 Hansard, copy filed at 15B).
At (21) we have asked the Governor of Hong Kong in what respect he regards this statement by
Mr. Mayhew, particularly when read in conjunction with Mr. Rees-Williams' reply of the 7th July, as inadequate and we have suggested that he may wish to discuss the matter with Mr. Paskin before telegraphing his views to us. We have not yet had a reply. The Foreign Office wish to have their materials concerning the different territories ready for collation by Friday the 14th. It is for consideration whether we should telegraph to the Governor for an immediate reply to (21) or whether we should agree to the Foreign Office proposals for the reference to Hong Kong in Lord Henderson's speech. These proposals seem to me suitable and, if the Governor really does want something further said about Hong Kong, I think there would hardly be time to clear it with the Foreign Office Before speech to be made on the 19th, I therefore suggest that we should tell the Foreign Office that we agree with their suggestions
Claim comident for Lord Henderson's speech.
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