CO129-622-4 War damage compensation- requisitioned railway stores and materials 28-1-1949 - 16-2-1950 — Page 27

SAVINGRAM

To the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

From the Governor, Hong Kong.

Date

No..

3 -

(33) on 148

between the British Embassy in Nanking and the Foreign Office, ending, as far as is known, with the Chancery's letter 8/095(2/554/48) of 19th February, 1948 to the China Department, Foreign Office.

11.

The 24 coaches mentioned in Invoice 011 can only refer to

The 22 22 Wagon-Lits Coaches and 2 belonging to the Tsin-P1 Line, Wagon-Lits Coaches were diverted to this Colony from Dairen during 1937 or 1938 and a special siding was constructed to hold them. Only the steel frames of two Wagon-Lits Coaches were found at Kowloon after the re-occupation, and report has it that the other The steel frames 22 were removed by the Japanese to North China,

of these two remaining Wagon-Lits Coaches were purchased from the Wagen-Lits Company for reconditioning and are now the property of the British Section. It seems therefore that there is no justific- ation whatever for the claim supported by Invoice 011 and this may be the reason why it appears to have been dropped,

12.

With regard to the claims supported by invoices 009 and 010 and which are set out in the letters to the Accountant General attached thereto, the contention by the Ministry of Communications is

not well-founded except in so far that the emergency regulations required that any material of a nature likely to be of use to the war effort could only be moved out of the Colony by special permission. Whatever the effect of such regulations might be theoretically, the present General Manager is able to state that, when the British Section agreed to build additional sidings for the retention of Chinese National Railway rolling stock, it was as a result of an exchange of letters in which this Government accepted no responsi- bility whatever for loss or damage. At no time was any request received from the Canton-Kowloon Section or the various agencies of the Ministry of Communications then present in the Colony to be allowed to remove any of this rolling stock to another place. I am of the opinion that these claims should be rejected as claims against the Hong Kong Government, If any claim lies at all, it is a Reparations Claim.

Biry.

5 Encls. T5:kcw.

IN

27