CO537-3705 — Page 259

Cypher/0TP

DEPARTMENTAL

FROM NANKING TO FOREIGN OFFICE

Sir R. Stevenson.

D. 8.55.a.m. January 13th,1948.

13

(१)

(3)

No. 44.

January 13th, 1948. R. 9.45.a.m. January 13th,1948.

Repeated to Hong Kong.

IMMEDIATE.

Addressed to the Foreign Office telegram No. 44 of January 13th, repeated to Hong Kong.

LIGHT.

RESTRICTED.

My telegram No. 33 (Kowloon evictions).

Reports of forcible action by the police in Kowloon yesterday morning caused the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs to request me through the Counsellor of this Embassy to urge the Governor of Hong Kong to refrain from using police force in the Kowloon City area. I replied that while I was in duty bound to transmit to His Majesty's Government any official request made by the Chinese Government I was not (repeat not) prepared personally to intervene further with Governor of Hong Kong in this matter.

L

2. Minister for Foreign Affairs himself thereupon summoned me last night and said he was much disturbed by the reports which had reached him of the police firing on crowds in Kowloon using tear gas and injuring Chinese citizens. On the assumption that there was at any rate some substance in these mis-statements he asked me officially to transmit his request to His Majesty's Government to instruct the Government of Hong Kong to refrain

(1) from using force in Kowloon City area and

(2) from sending any bodies of police there pending settlement of

(a) general question of jurisdiction over the area and

(b) specific points already raised over the evictions

viz persons, under arrest, compensation for those who had a legal right to reside in the area, and relief for those evicted (paragraph 2 of my telegram No. 12 to Hong Kong).

13.