CO537-3707 — Page 22

the

I think there would be advantage in reconsidering some of the earlier suggestions made for settling this matter. I refer particularly to two related ones,

viz. :

(a) that the whole area should be handed over

for a residence and grounds, or office and grounds, for the Chinese Government representative in Hong Kong

(b)

a variant of this, whereby an officially

accredited Chinese Consul or Consul

General would take the place of the present representative.

In paragraph 5 of (194) the "mbassador says he thinks the settlement suggested in paragraph 4 of (173) would be the best in the long run. This is, briefly, to use the whole area for the official quarters of the Chinese Government's representative in Hong Kong. We do not seem to have any comments from the Governor on this particular proposal, but in paragraph 1 of (187) we have his comments on a proposal to set aside part of the area as an office for the Chinese Government's representative. would accept this reluctantly and only if the area were leased to the Chinese. If the Chinese would accept á lease (admittedly doubtful) there might be little more objection to leasing the whole area for this purpose than to leasing a part.

He

We have long wanted the Chinese to appoint a Consul-General in Hong Kong instead of the "Special Commissioner in Hong Kong of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs" as the representative is at present known; the Chinese are believed to be reluctant to do this because it would be an open acknowledgment that Hong Kong is foreign territory and on our side we have not pressed the matter because it might cause the Chinese to raise the whole question of the status of Hong Kong. (The history of this matter is well summarised in a note by Miss Ruston at (31) on 95201/8(11)/46-47.)

At a very early stage the Governor said he regarded (b) above as a solution les objectionable than some, provided the area were leased to the Chinese Government by the Hong Kong Government (see 109 on Part I). Consideration of this possible solution was not pursued because the proposal for

a Garden of Remembrance, first made by Mr. Rees-Williams (see para. 2 of Mr. Mayle's minute of 6/2/48) and communicated to Nanking as Mr. Bevin's personal proposal (129) then took the field. This proposal got bogged down over the jurisdiction issue and has now turned into the Chinese compromise proposal. (It will be noted that during the discussion of the Garden of Remembrance proposal the Chinese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs expressed a preference for the suggestion for using the whole site for offices for/Chinese Special Commissioner - see paragraph 3 of 185).

I have spoken to Mr. Scott of the Foreign Office who is inclined to agree that it would be profitable

to