170
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Sir R. Stevenson No. 1332
25th August, 1949
SECRET
D: 5.34.p.m. 25th August; 1949 R: 6.55.p.m. 25th August, 1949
Addressed to Shanghai telegram No. 518 of August 25th, repeated for information to Foreign Office and Singapore.
Your telegram No. 406: British Emergency planners policy Committee.
I sympathise with you in the difficult position in which you are placed by the action of the Committee in insisting, despite explanations which you gave them, on seeking assurances some of which it is obviously impossible for His Majesty's Government to give. In the present circumstances their apprehension is understandable, but unfortunately there is little that we can do or say to relieve it.
2. I think that the best line for you to take in reply is to tell the Committee that I fully appreciate the difficulty of their present problems which are in fact essentially the same as those facing His Majesty's Government in determining the methods by which they carry out their China policy. The crux of the whole matter is, of course, Communist intentions in regard to:-
(a)
(b)
Foreign trade and
Hong Kong.
It is no more easy for His Majesty's Government to forecast what [grp. undec] ray be than it is for British business community in China. All that His Majesty's Government can do, therefore, is to follow a general line policy, dealing as best they can with developments as they occur. As regards (a), policy of His Majesty's Government is that Britain is ready and indeed anxious to trade with China on a sound business basis. As regards (b) policy of His Majesty's Government is that stated by the Minister of Defence in the House of Commons on June 22nd, i.e., "to maintain the friendliest possible
/relations with whatever