54144/7/45.·
1.
HONG KONG EMERGENCY UNIT.
Notes on letter of the 12th February from Secretary of State for War.
9
Amendments to the draft telegram Nos. 1, 2
and 4 are acceptable.
2.
93
Difficulty arises, however, over the amend- ment to the second paragraph of the telegram, the effect of which is to say that the emergency administration would derive its temporary government powers from the Military Attache, Chungking.
3. This seems to be entirely inconsistant with the statement in the covering letter that the emergency administration cannot rely upon military authority for its origin or for its support; and with the suggestion in the covering letter that the Colonial Office will be able to provide the head of the emergency administration with the authority necessary to legalise his actions.
This administration cannot derive its authority both from the M.A. and from the C.0.
to grant such
Commissims
4.
5.
Loving
As to the M.A., we rejected that suggestion at the outset on the ground that the M.A. has no authority which he can devolve and the only military entity in China which we could think of wombed Speechl authority to devolve was the G.0.C. China. We have now accepted the War Office view that even G.O.C. China has no authority in Hong Kong. This view seems to apply a fortiori to M.A. Chungking.
6. Our conception of getting over the difficulty was that the head of the emergency administration should be given a dormant commission by the C.0. There is now an alternative suggestion indicated below (paa 9).
7. In the covering letter it is said that this emergency administration cannot be "a military government".
This may be true in the technical sense of that term, but for this scheme it is essential that the emergency administration should have all the out- ward appearances of a military government. They should be all in military uniform and should, have the power of declaring martial law.
8. In the covering letter it is also stated that the emergency administration cannot rely upon military authority "for its support". This is no doubt true as regards army support, but nevertheless it is essential that the administration should be able to rely on some armed support and this might perhaps be provided by submarines at the critical time.
9. As an alternative to the dormant commission idea mentioned in para.6 above, the following possible alternative course has now been suggested. The leader and as many members of the party as may be necessary should be given commissions in the Hong Kong local forces. This would enable them, on arrival in Hong Kong, to function as a properly constituted military unit (though not of course a ".K. military unit). If the S. of S. has not already sufficient powers under the ong Kong (Temporary Provisions) Order in Council, 1942, to invest such a Hong Kong military unit with sufficient powers to declare martial law etc. the S. of S. could surely be given such powers by an amendment of the Order in Council.
10.
The necessary authority to the leader of the emergency administration might conceivably have to take the form partly of authority to him as senior member of
/the
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