CO537-3706 — Page 145

CYPHER/OTP

OUTWARD TELEGRAM

174

POLITICAL DISTRIBUTION

FROM FOREIGN OFFICE TO NANKING

*:

D: 9.45 p.m. 20th February, 1948.

No. 154.

20th February, 1948.

}

Repeated to: Hong Kong.

IMPORTANT

CONFIDENTIAL

(173)

X

Addressed to Nanking telegram No. 154 of February 20th repeated for information to Hong Kong.

Your telegram No. 181 [of 20th February

Kowloon].

Chinese Minister called this afternoon and made a communication in the same terms as that reported in the first two paragraphs of your telegram.

2. Minister was told that we had already learned of this from you and he was left in no doubt that our preliminary reactions were very unfavourable. Minister then said that if we did not like this idea, what did we think of the proposal reported in my telegram No. 75? He was told that in our view both proposals suffered from the same defect, namely that the Chinese Government was trying to put forward a form of words by which His Majesty's Government would admit Chinese jurisdiction. In the later proposal the Kwangtung Government was to appoint the Board but would, apparently as an act of grace, admit two members of the Kowloon Administration. If this was not asking us to accept the principle of Chinese jurisdiction, it was difficult to discover what the reason for such a proposal was.

3. Our own idea had been that we should both remain of the same opinion still, that the Chinese Government would continue to consider they had jurisdiction while we should continue to consider that we were exercising it as we had in fact done for nearly fifty years. Our proposal was that in the interests of Anglo-Chinese friendship both of us should agree not to insist upon our attitude and to accept a solution which would avoid the vexed question of jurisdiction. We were proposing to invite the Chinese to do something which up to now they have not been in a position to do, namely to be partners with us in the administration of a Garden of Remembrance on the Kowloon site which in itself would be a monument to Anglo-Chinese co-operation. The Chinese Govern- ment, however, seemed to be thinking in terms of an accep- tance by a form of words of their claim to jurisdiction. It did not seem to us that this was a compromise in any sense of the word. We should have to consider this fresh development and what it implied, but the result could only mean further delay for which we must hold the Chinese Govern- ment responsible. We were on the point of submitting a

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