OUTWARD TELEGRAM
Cypher/OTP
POLITICAL DISTRIBUTION
FROM FOREIGN OFFICE TO NANKING
No.189
27th February; 1948.
Repeated to Hong Kong.
MOST IMMEDIATE
CONFIDENTIAL
D.
Addressed to Nanking telegram No.189 of February 27th, repeated for information to Hong Kong.
ily telegram No.184 [of 27th February - Kowloon]. My
Chinese Ambassador called again this afternoon with his Minister to discuss Kowloon situation. He said that while we were discussing settlement the two arrested persons were still in prison. If we did not reach settlement soon, their sentence would expire and there would then be no act of grace involved in their release.
2. Ambassador then referred to conversation with Minister last week and asked whether suggestion then mentioned that Garden of Remembrance should be entrusted to two trsutees who might be the Special Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong respectively, had ever been put to the Chinese Government.. He asked further if he could be given any idea of the draft statement which we told the Minister we were considering when the new Chinese proposal brought matters to a standstill.
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3. Having been told that we had not yet put the suggest ion of the two trustees to the Chinese Government, Ambassador asked whether you could not be invited to do so. He thought it would be useful for the Chinese to have this alternative as well as the one put to him by the Secretary of State yesterday.
4. As regards the draft statement (which is contained in my immediately following telegram), it was explained to the Ambassador that this had only been under consideration at a departmental level and that he must not therefore in any way regard it as final. It was then read out to him, and he expressed the opinion that it would be valuable if you could give the Chinese Government some idea of the kind of statement we had in mind on the lines of this text.
Never-
5. Finally, the Ambassador pressed for the release of the two men. He was reminded that the question of their release lay entirely with the Governor of Hong Kong. theless if the Chinese Government agrced in principle to the solution proposed, we should be prepared to enquire whether
the
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