CO129-624-14 Finances- relief stores- Hangover stores and Siamese free rice 1-7-1948 - 31-12-1951 — Page 70

(b)

credited to Colonial Office (£1,497.690 see my savingram No. "Accounts" of 19th April, 1949).

£ (millions)

21.5

£3.0 millions

It is appreciated that some supplies may have been given away without charge and some may have been sold at less than cost price, some were retained for Government use: and there were inevitable losses and unsuitable supplies; but I should be grateful if you can give any estimates of the amount at B. above and any general indication of the amounts which go to make up the difference between the total of A + B and C above.

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 November 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 paragraph 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 assumption that the proceeds had been paid over to His Majesty's Government, it was stated in my savingram of 9th August, 1948, that the proceeds should be distributed, not on the basis of actual receipts, but in the same proportions as the I.E. F.C. allocation of rice from South East Asia sources to the countries concerned. It would obviously not be fair that each territory should be credited with 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.

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