54144/7.
round to share it.
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The Colonial Office has a major interest in the promotion of a recognised British military force both in Borneo and in South China. We have no operational forces of an ordinary sort in either theatre, and we therefore have to rely on para-military forces to show our flag in connection with the liberation of Borneo and Hong Kong,
As the Secretary of State knows, we were relying on the personnel and organisation of B.A.A.G. in particular under a scheme to forestall any Chinese Warlord snatching Hong Kong in any interval of Japanese weakness or evacuation before a United Nations military force of recognised character arrived to occupy the Colony. That scheme has been held up owing to the present doubt of the British position resulting from General Wedeneyer's edict. In any case, that scheme would be an impossible one to disclose to the Generalissimo, and it would therefore need to be a plain S.0.E. scheme organised from India for the conveyance at the crucial moment such B.A.A.C. or other British personnel as can be lifted into Hong Kong when the moment occurred.
Our principle liberation
intelligence of conditions in Borneo and Hong Kong will depend entirely on our having a British (or Australiand organisation for the purpose.
For these reasons it would be a calamity if we failed to give our strongest support to the $.0.E. scheme to have a recognised role in areas suitable for activities, in Hong Kong especially, and
in
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