CO537-3705 — Page 88

54145/16/48

CONFIDENTIAL

Dear Scarlett,

Colonial Office, Church House,

89

Great Smith Street,

S. W. 1.

28th January, 1948.

Kowloon City Squatters

Thank you very much for your letter

F.918/154/10 of the 23rd January, to which we have given very careful consideration.

The

We can see the force of your argument that we should first seek to bridle the refugee personalities and organisations within the Colony before tackling the question of Kuomintang activities, and the suggestion made by the Governor of Hong Kong that the Chinese Government should be asked to withdraw the Kuomintang and the San Min Chu I Youth Corps from the Colony. case for accepting the assurances of the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs in regard to the "National Times", instead of adopting the Governor's second suggestion, that we should take the present opportunity to ask the Chinese Government to withdraw the "National Times" from Hong Kong, and the case for not adopting the Governor's third suggestion that we should take the present opportunity to seek the regularisation of the position of the representative of the Chinese Government in Hong Kong do not seem to us to be so strong. However we presume that these two matters must now be considered in the light of the implications of H.M.G.'s foreign policy as announced last week, and that in as much as the action proposed might weaken the position of the present Chinese Government internally, this constitutes an additional argument for adopting the courses you propose.

P.. SCARLETT, ESQ.

In