CO129-558-6 Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps- application by German residents to enlist 11-10-1935 - 12-6-1936 — Page 11

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONG KONG,

16

11

(9)

SECRET

Dear Cowell,

RECEIVED

17 JUL 1936

June 12th, 1936.

9

Thank you for your Secret letter No.53714/36

of the 27th March on the subject of enlistment of German

residents in the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Force.

On the 19th May Command Headquarters here

issued instructions, by order of the War Office, that they

were not to be enlisted. As you point out in your letter

under reply it was really a matter for the Governor and not

for the War Office, but as I agree entirely with the decision

arrived at, and as neither General Bartholomew nor I had

arrived in Hong Kong when the reference to the War Office

was made, I do not desire to call in question the authority

on which the order rests. We are working here in the fullest

and happiest liaison, and I am quite sure that there is no

desire whatever on the part of Command Headquarters to put

the Governor out of the picture.

Yours sincerely,

Calderm

H.R. Cowell, Esq., C.M.G.,

Colonial Office.