Mr. Bevin said that would only be acceptable if the Chinese guaranteed that one of their members would be permanently absent.
I gathered also from Mr. Scarlett that
Sir Orme Sargent was inclined to the view that we should make no further proposals to the Chinese. I pointed out to him, however, that it was desirable from the point of view of the Hong Kong authorities to find a solution to this problem as some 28 of the evicted squatters had set themselves up in Kowloon City again, and that it would probably be difficult to deal with them satisfactorily without repercussions unless some solution is found.
If it is decided to put to the Foreign Office the suggestion referred to at X/ in Mr. Wallace's minute, it might perhaps be put in the form suggested at A/ in my minute of the 24th February.
177. P.W. Scarlett Esq F.O.
27.2.48.
27.2--08
See now the attached minute from Mr. Scarlett of the Foreign Office (177) enclosing a copy of the telegram to Nanking reporting the interview between the Chinese Ambassador and Mr. Bevin (177A) and the drafts of a joint public statement for transmission to the Chinese Government (177B) and a note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nanking, covering this draft (177C).
Mr. Wallace and I discussed these documents with Mr. Seel and I subsequently rang up Mr. Scarlett and told him that we thought that paragraph 3 of the joint public statement which is crossed out in the Foreign Office draft should be retained. If this is not retained it is essential, in our view, that the Ambassador should make it quite clear to the Chinese Government when sending the draft statement to them that the whole arrangement set out in the draft statement would be subject to agreement as between the two Governments, that as a matter of practical convenience and in the interests of residents in contiguous areas of Kowloon the laws of the Colony should apply to the Garden of Remembrance, and that maintenance of law and order will be undertaken by the Hong Kong authorities who will also provide facilities for sanitation. The Government of Hong Kong will in these matters consult the trustees, as may be necessary.
As regards the existing squatters, I said that we should prefer that the Ambassador should deal with this point on the lines of the instructions which he already has (paragraph 4 of No.161), instead of as in paragraph 2 of the draft note (1770).
Finally I made it quite clear that we did regard an understanding of law and order on the lines we wanted an essential part of any arrangements
with