CO129-624-14 Finances- relief stores- Hangover stores and Siamese free rice 1-7-1948 - 31-12-1951 — Page 101

97

34

55413

48

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55-413/1/48

se qc

Sour/1/58

4. As regards "Siamese Free Rice" included in item

A (i) above, I would refer to my savingram No. 182 of

9th August, 1948 enclosing a memorandum on this subject,

and to your reply No. 92 of 1st Nov. 1948. Since that

correspondence took place, further consideration has been

given to this problem which for convenience is summarised

below, with the addition of certain aspects which now

appear to be relevant. Shortly after the surrender of

Thailand, supplies of rice estimated to be worth £1,707,600

were obtained from that territory without payment and

were shipped to India, Malaya, Hong Kong, Borneo

territories, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The amount

shipped to Hong Kong was worth £516,700. It is assumed

that the rice was sold and presumably the proceeds of

sale in Hong Kong are included in the total of items

C (a) and (b) of para. 3 above, subject to any further

information you may be able to give as a result of the

enquiry at the end of that paragraph. On the

been

assumption that the proceeds had to be paid over to

H.M.G., it was stated in my savingram of 9th August 1948,

aut on the basis of actual receipts, but that the proceeds should be distributed in the same

proportions as the I.E.F.C. allocation of rice from S.E. Asia

sources to the countries concerned.

It would obviously not credited will

be fair that each territory should be put the value of the

Siamese rice actually received by that territory, since the

distribution amongst the above territories was purely a

matter of convenience at the time and was not on the basis

of any entitlement of each territory to food supplies at that

time, or on the basis of entitlement to shares of

reparations from Thailand. On the basis of I.E.F.C.

allocations, 10.6% was considered to represent Hong Kong's

notional share of £1,707,600, or £181,000.

5.

In the light of further consideration which has since

been given to this problem I now feel, however, that it can

reasonably be contended that the proceeds of sale during the

period of the British Military Administration should

/legitimately