CO537-2187 — Page 27

The Secretary of State may think it desirable to circulate copies of the paper, in its draft form, to the above Ministers as well as to Mr. Bevin, in case they would like to offer any comments on it before it is formally circulated to the Cabinet. This could be done by sending them copies of the Secretary of State's letter to Mr. Bevin and the enclosure, but the Secretary of State may prefer to send the draft to the se Ministers under cover of a short note, perhaps after telling Mr. Bevin first that he proposes to do so. The last paragraph of my draft assumes that the Secretary of State will adopt this course.

If and when this paper goes to the Cabinet, we shall have to get the map (Annex IV) reproduced. I propose to make arrangements for this as soon as the draft has gone off to Mr. Bevin, and to try to get it reproduced in colour or in some other method which will show more clearly than the map used for the purpose of the draft at 104 the coast, the extent of the ceded territory and the extent of the leased territory.7

by Mangle

24.4.47.

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It is not too early to be considering how we can revive this question on the return of Mr. Bevin. I attach an extract from a private letter from

ext Sir Mark Young to Sir Thomas Lloyd which again stresses the need for a statement. From our point of view we must continue to press, and I agree that the best way of doing so will be to put Mr. Mayle's draft memorandum to the Foreign Secretary for his consideration. It seemed to me, however, that Annex V to the draft, which is the crux of the whole matter, needed modification, as I do not see how we could reconcile using baldly the phrase "no intention of giving up Hong Kong", with the possibility which we contemplate of a deal with the Chinese, which would, or might, result in a surrender of part of the new territories before the lease falls in.

Also I am not sure that the second paragraph of Mr. Mayle's draft letter correctly interprets No. 97, which is itself not free from obscurity. I have, therefore, prepared a revised draft letter. I assume that this will in any case not go off before the Foreign Secretary returns, but that may be any day now.

As regards Mr. Mayle's suggestion that the draft paper should also be sent to Mr.Dalton, Sir Stafford Cripps and Mr.Alexander at this stage, the only objection to this that I can see is that it might annoy the Foreign Secretary. If there is any like- lihood of this, it would be better to omit the suggestion.

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make his finters attempt to persuade 28th April, 1947.

A. Berin

34/42d 215-