CO129-592-8 Future Policy in Hong Kong 1-1-1945 - 26-11-1945 — Page 153

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HONGKONG.

In a telegram to General Ismay dated 27th March (copy attached) Field-Marshal Wilson records a conversation with General Hurley in which the latter said that we were likely to encounter a rough attitude from the President and the State Department over Hongkong and that he might be raising this question in London.

We must therefore be prepared for the possibility of his mentioning Hongkong, but it is not pos sible to foresee from what angle and with what degree of emphasis he is likely to raise the question.

He would presumably be likely to begin with some general reference to American concern about Hongkong and it might be tactically advantageous to reply at once on a challenging note and to ask whether that concern is based to any extent on a belief that the Colony has been unwisely administered

or unfairly exploited in British interests. He can be safely challenged to disprove that it has been run to the benefit of nearly a million Chinese residents and of all countries having relations with China, and that the opportunities it affords, in a material sense, have been equally available to all

nationalities.

The main points regarding the British record in Hongkong are briefly set out in the attached note.

Apart from this, there seem to be three main general

points:

1. The question of Hongkong is one between Great Britain

and China, and the Chinese Government must be aware of the present attitude of His Majesty's Government as recently

reaffirmed in Parliament.

2. Having lost Hongkong to the enemy, it is a noint of national honour for us to recover it.

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