Cypher/OTP
F1726/154/10
Confidential
OUTWARD TELEGRAM
REOZIVED
11 FEB 1948
0.0. REGY.
DIPLOMATIC
No.115
FROM FOREIGN OFFICE TO NANKING
7th February, 1948. D.3.30 p.m. 7th February, 1948. Repeated to Hongkong
IMMEDIATE
CONFIDENTIAL
129.
Addressed to Nanking telegram No.115 of 7th February, repeated for information to Hongkong.
113
Your telegram No.116: Kowloon City.
I have been giving my personal attention to the Kowloon question in order to find a satisfactory solution.
2. You should now seek an interview with Hinister for Foreign Affairs at which you should inform him of my personal interest in this matter and put to him the following proposal in my name.
3. Proposal is that the site of the Kowloon walled city should be cleared and the area converted into a Garden of Remembrance in memory of all members of the Allied forces who fell in the common struggle against Japan. We should wish to consult with the Chinese as to some suitable form of memorial to be erected in the Garden. It is my hope that this solution will not only commend itself to the Chinese Government, but that it will create a lasting bond between those who fought together in the common cause.
4. It follows of course that the care and maintenance of the Garden of Remembrance will fall to the Hongkong Administration, but the vexed question of jurisdiction will surely not arise if this solution is accepted.
5. We would hope also that our other wartime allies and in particular the United States would be gratified to learn that they would be honoured in this way.
6. For your own information we would expect that the creation of a memorial to the dead would induce the Chinese population to treat the site with respect and remove any likelihood that it would be the source of any trouble of the kind we have recently experienced.
7. If the Chinese Government accept this proposal, you should say that we would wish to concert with them the terms of a suitable announcement to be made public at a time to be agreed between us.
BBB