CO129-622-3 War damage compensation- requisitioned railway stores and materials 19-1-1948 - 31-12-1948 — Page 58

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other Colonial Office comments to be made.

As a result of reorganisation here this

case now (for my sins) falls to me, not to

Scarlett, to deal with and, although I attended

the meeting at your office on the 12th August

when Mr. Hsu was present, I have hitherto not

been able to study the ramifications of the

various connected cases.

Lt.

First, as regards your letter of the 31st

August to Scarlett and its enclosures.

I have

made further search among our papers and, like

Scarlett before me, -vide paragraph 2 of his

letter of the 20th July I cannot find any

-

trace of our having received papers from

Hong Kong about the Chinese claims for over

£900,000 for railway materials not requisitioned,

(21/24)

but (according to the Chinese story) by Hong Kong ordinance

not allowed to be removed from the Colony without

permit and therefore ultimately lost.

It is true that a Memorandum dated 19th January

1948, prepared apparently in Jardine and Matheson's

Shanghai office, a copy of which formed the

enclosure to Nanking Embassy's letter No. S/O 95

(2/554/48) of the 19th February 1948 to the

Foreign Office refers to (a) claims totalling

£353,458. 10s. for materials actually requisitioned

and (b) claims totalling £942,449.8s. for materials

contended by the Chinese to be covered by the

so-called "blanket requisition".

It then says

the total claim is therefore £1,295,907. 18s. and

Javi

goes on "the claims were referred by the Hong

Kong Government to His Majesty's Colonial Office

in

(35)

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