CO129-575-15 Traffic of arms to China 24-1-1939 - 4-12-1939 — Page 78

B. 3573/39.

SECRET.

Burma Office,

Whitehall, S.W.1.

th

2rday, 1939.

75

My dear Phelips,

With reference to your official letter No.

190 D(M) of the 29th April, about the transport of ammunitions through Burma to China, I enclose a copy

Dated March 27th and April 17th.) of the despatches received by the Foreign Office from His Majesty's Consul at Tengyueh. You will see that there are considerable discrepancies between the quantities of arms and ammunition shown in the lists supplied to Stockley by the Superintendent, Northern Shan States, to have been forwarded to China and those given in the corresponding returns which we have had from you. We are, of course, assuming that the figures which you send us also relate only to arms which have actually crossed in China: and we have tried in vain, on this assumption to find some explanation of the discrepancies which can hardly be accounted for entirely by the difference in the periods to which the two sets of figures relate. We should be very glad if you could let us have, as soon as possible, some explanation of the apparent contradiction between the two statements.

(sd.) A.F. MORLEY.

D.C.P. Phelips, I.C.S.,

Defence Department,

Rangoon.