(FC 1198/10)
IMMEDIATE
SECRET
941 ?
FOREIGN OFFICE, S.W.1.
16th March, 1950.
15
My
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Hall,
You will no doubt have seen the statement in Tamsui telegram No. 93 of the 3rd March that a large proportion of the Nationalist soldiers shipped from Hong Kong to Formosa have been able-bodied.
This is a perturbing piece of information. The Governor of Hong Kong's telegram No. 7 of the 22nd January to Tamsui described the soldiers as "disabled and destitute" and no subsequent telegrams either from Hong Kong or from Tamsui indicated that any of them were able-bodied.
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In time of war, for a neutral to repatriate able-bodied soldiers would not be compatible with its duty of impartiality. Similarly, to send back able-bodied soldiers to insurgents, such as the Nationalists, must be regarded as intervention in a civil war, and the Central People's Government might well regard our actions as unfriendly.
What has been done cannot be undone, but we regard it as urgently necessary that no further able-bodied soldiers should be
H. P. Hall, Esq., M.B.E.,
Colonial Office.
shipped/...