CO129-606-5 Hong Kong Loan- Financial settlement 2-3-1948 - 4-10-1948 — Page 96

Secretariat 37/2321/470

SAVINGRAM

To the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

From the Governor, Hong Kong.

quh

Date 9 June, 1948.

No. 40. SECRET.

95

76

Encl. 1.

1.

Your telegram 589.

(67)

War Expenditure Settlement.

I forward for your information copy of a confidential letter addressed to the Colonial Secretary by the Unofficial Members of Legislative Council.

(70) 2

(25) proposed settlement.

(46).-

You will already have observed from my telegram 526 that the Unofficial Members had decided not to press publicly their opposition to the

You are, however, aware from my telegram No. 402 and still more from my telegram No. 426 that unofficial opinion here is far from satisfied; I am sure that paragraph 11 of the enclosed letter describes correctly the reasons which have prevailed on the Unofficial Members to refrain fram voicing their dissatisfaction in open Council.

3.

That this dissatisfaction to some extent reflects public opinion in this Colony is evident from current Press comment. For example, the South China Morning Post concluded its leading article of 28th April, 1948, with the words "the official ideas of appropriate liquidation of the war cost problem insult both the Colony's loyalty and its intelligence". I do not, however, now regard the dissatisfaction which has been publicly expressed with any real anxiety.

40

It will be to no small degree allayed if the suggestion made in paragraph 5 of my telegram No. 437, and accepted in paragraph 4 of your

(51) (62) telegram No. 533, does in fact result in expediting settlement of claims

against the Service departments. The brief statement made to-day in Legislati Council on the lines of your telegram 611 should also tend to smooth over the situation.

(11).

Encl. 2.

5.

I attach here to for ease of reference the questions asked by Hon. Leo d'Almada e Castro in Legislative Council on 26th May and the replies returned thereto by the Financial Secretary, to which reference is made in the Unofficial Members' letter. My telegram No. 487 and your telegram Encl 3 No. 589 refer. I attach also newspaper accounts of to-day's debate in

(67) Legislative Council.

W213

RECEIVED

21 JUN 1948

C. REGY.