X SECRET(3).
4031/40.
3
REC
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONG KONG.
4- SEP 1940
C.
15th July, 1940.
My Lord,
I have the honour to refer to the Foreign
61-139 Office confidential print No.F 2998/2998/10 of 29th
to 70 (
взру
Мишав
April, 1940, containing Sir Stafford Cripps' Report on the position in China, and to express the hope that the views expressed in its 129th paragraph are not necessarily accepted by the Foreign Office.
2.
After the rather sketchy "contacts" reported
in the fifteenth paragraph of the Report it seems a little hard that everyone who suffers from the sanctuary of a Crown Colony or a Treaty Port should be labelled as "singularly short-sighted" in its next paragraph, as compared with the adventurers and unreliable politicians who throng Chungking.
3.
As a concrete example one would have thought that my present Colonial Secretary who, as Secretary for Chinese Affairs has made a special study of Chinese politics and psychology and has in addition some knowledge of the Japanese language and habits of thought acquired in Japan itself, might have been thought worthy of a short interview. In this connection I would invite
your attention to the series of despatches on the political situation in China addressed to the Colonial Office by Sir Cecil Clementi during his Governorship of
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
LORD LLOYD OF DOLOBRAN,
&c.,
&c.,
&c.
Pag
Pag
4 END
2
of Hong Kong which were for the most part
prepared at the Chinese Secretariat.
4.
In drawing attention to this point
I am far from wishing to appear to belittle
this very able and interesting report but desire
only to anticipate a possible tendency to
ignore the views and interests of this Colony in
favour of a section of British opinion which,
though more vocal, may be, in spite of its greater mobility, less familiar with the facts
of the situation.
I have the honour to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's most obedient, humble servant,
N.L. Smith
Officer Administering the Government.
ge 4
ge 4
54031
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