54447/5/50
12
The Church House,
Great Smith Street,
LONDON, S.W.1.
28th June, 1950.
37
Dear Seymour,
In his letter to you of 14th March, 1950, about the requisitioning of railway materials in Hong Kong in 1941, Fairclough mentioned that, at the suggestion of Lt. Col. Walker, we were seeking further informa- tion on the question of work done on 600 railway wagons.
You
We have now heard from Mr. James Smith who was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Kowloon Canton Railway at the time, and I enclose copies of his letter and of our letter to which it replies. will see that Mr. Smith supporta Lt. Col. Walker's view (which was also the view of the Governor of Hong Kong) that the 600 wagons were made good in Hong Kong, at least to the extent that he states that 50% of the necessary fittings for the wagons were manufactured in Hong Kong. Incidentally Mr. Smith also indirectly confirms Lt. Col. Walker's recollection that there were two separate consignments of wagons.
In the light of this further evidence we would be grateful for your comments generally on this matter and in particular on the proposel made in
LT. COL. SEYMOUR, 0.B.N.,
WAR OFFICE,
NUFFIELD HOUSE,
PICCADILLY.
/paragraph
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