CO537-3702 — Page 128

Cr Ap

54389/*3.Com. Articles

opres on бриет

15264/17/1

Par (

ri Man Chit Chump

54145

En Clair by :

Confidential Bag.

DIPLOMATIC DISTRIBUTION.

FROM. NANKING TO FOREIGN OFFICE.

Sir R. Stevenson.

No.13 Saving.

19th July, 1948.

R. 4th August, 1948.

Repeated to: Singapore (Saving); Hong Kong (Saving);

RESTRICTED

LIGHT.

Addressed to Foreign Office telegram No.13 Saving of 19th July, repeated for information (Saving) to Commissioner- General South East Asia, and Hong Kong.

In the course of an interview which I had with M.F.A. on July 17th prior to going on leave I asked him whether there were any matters which he would like me to bring to the notice of H. M. Government when I arrived in London.

:

2. In reply he embarked on a long disquisition on the difficulty he had had during the past two or three years in answering questions put to him by his colleagues in the Cabinet, by the former People's Political Council and latter- ly by the Legislative Yuan on the difference between the treatment meted out by H. M. Government to the peoples of India, Pakistan,. Burma and Ceylon and that given to the inhabitants of territories such as Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong where the inhabitants wore mostly or wholly Chinese, He confessed that he had not been able to produce a- satis- factory and convincing reply.

3. I interjected here that, if in future he were asked such questions, he could make the simple and perfectly satisfactory reply that the constitutional changes in the status of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon were the culmina- tion of a process of education and development which had been going on for very many years. These countries had reached a point where they were capable of political and economic independence. It was the settled aim of H. M. Government to bring all colonial territories to that point as rapidly as they were capable of going. The pace at which this develop- ment could be carried on depended on the characteristics of the people themselves and the natural resources of their territorios. The moment at which they could be deemed capable of independence was a matter for decision by H. M. Government.

4. I cannot boast that this rejoinder made any real impression on the Minister for Foreign Affairs as he pro- cocded to urge that the relations between China and Great Britain should be strengthened and improved by putting them on a basis of close co-operation in respect of territories

having

10