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not pressing the rendition issue at present, it is kept constantly before people's eyes. Even though Dr. Sun Fo at Hong Kong in August last refused to commit himself on the subject of the return of ilong Zong to China, his reply left the impression that the issue was not dead, but only in abeyance. The wide publicity given to the misquotation of Lord Ammon's remarks at Shanghai last month is referred to by Allen.

Perhaps I might also refor, in this connection,

to the extracts from Mr. James F. byrnes' book "Speaking Frankly", published in the Paris edition of the New York Herald Tribune on the 18th October, 1947, which contains a description of the Yalta discussions in which the case of Hong Kong was specifically mentioned. I enclose our presa extract, which I should be grateful if you would retura. This will no doubt have added to the uncertainty as to our future position in Hong Kong.

Finally, although you have agreed that it was not quite right to say that the "reassuring statement" about Hong Kong had been deferred because it was felt that it would seen gratuitously provocative to the Chinese at a timc when they were in no position to do anything about it, their recent attempts to hold elections for the Chinese Assembly in malaya and Hong Kong do not suggest that they themselves fecl that they are not in a position to look after or further their own interests.

It

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