55136/24/48
8.9/27/3636/38
The Church House,
972
Great Smith Street,
S.4.1.
9 June,
June, 1948
Dear Mae
We spoke on the telephone the other day on the subject of the claim of the Government of Hong Kong against the Soviet Government for reimbursement of expenditure incurred in maintaining watchmen on boarā wrecked Soviet vesseis in hong kong harbour, about which Hope-Jones had correspondence with Galsworthy ending with the letter's letter of 16th July, 1947. I'′ gathered that you had had no response to the claim covering the period to 31st December, 1946 which was submitted through our Embassy at Moscow in Foreign Office Note of 14th August, 1947.
We have now received a letter (of which I enclose a copy) from LacDougall in Hong Kong bringing the claim up to 31st March, 1948. You will see that he 18 becoming anxious at this continuing expense with no certainty of recoupment, particularly as the wrecks are deteriorating, and that the local feeling is that the time has come when the wrecks should be sold for what they will fetch, the llong Kong Government recouping its expenditure out of the proceeds and placing the balance on deposit to the credit of the Soviet Authorities.
We share the local anxieties in this matter and, provided such a course is not likely to prejudice United Kingdom Government claims of a similar nature against the Soviet Government, we should be grateful
C. 2. A. RAE, ES
if
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.