Cypher (0.T.P.)
TO HONG KONG (Sir A. Granthảin)
(>Bnjqez) 5+/2 +1281 3M 'n dd
FROM S. OF S., COLONIES.
Sent 15th February, 1948.
16.00 hrs.
IMPORTANT
No. 228 Confidential.
Following from Foreign Office to
Nanking No. 139 of 14th February repeated for information to Hong Kong. Begins.
Your
Your telegram No. 159: Kowloạn.
You will by now hạve seen Hong Kong telegram No. 175 to Secretary of State for Colonies. I am in substantial agreement with the views expressed therein by Governor of Hong Kong.
2. I shall accordin ly be grateful if you will once again press the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs to accept my original proposal in regard to care and maintenance of the Garden. I think there is still a chance that he may prove amenable in the light of the undertaking on our part, which you may now give, regarding the two arrested men; namely, that if agreement is secured, the Governor af Hong Kong will, as an act of grace, remit the balance of their sentence on the date of publication of a joint statement on our agreement.
3. Should you find it impossible to make progress on these lines, you may propose to the Minister for Forei Affairs that responsibility for care and maintenance of the Garden should be entrusted to a joint committee of custodians, consisting of an equal number of nominees appointed by each of the two governments, and Jointly res onsible for its control, with the maintenance of law and order and sanitation being carried out by the Hong Kong authorities in consultation with the committee. I consider that under this proposal the cost of laying out and maintaining the Garden should be borne jointly by the two governments.
4. If you reach agreement m the above lines it is, of course, essential that the remaining squatters should move their huts to the alternative site Indfoated by the Government of Hong Kong without further trouble. You should leave the Minister for Foreign Affairs in ne doubt that I rely on the Chinese Government to accept the necessity for this and to take such steps as may be necessary to prevent this measure from being made the subject of agitation în China.
5.
Draft of a joint press release will be telegraphed to you and Governor of Hong Kong for comments shortly.
Circulated to:-
Secretary of State MR.PEARSON
Sir T. Lloyd
Mr. Rees Williams Bir C. Jeffries
Sir 8. Caine
Mr. Mayle
Mr. W.I.J.
Wallace
lir. Radford
Ends.
Mr. Eastwood
Mr. Poynton
Mr. Rogers
Mr. Galsworthy
Mr. Bennett
Mr. Ian Watt
Mr. Blackburne
Colonial Attache
Mr. Collins
Mr. Bigg
Accounts Branch
Mr. Holding
R. 445