afterwards. This could be done at practically no cost: air fare from The Hague would be comparatively slight and accommodation, etc. here should not be very expensive. He proposed to put this suggestion to the Speaker of the House of Commons. Lord Shepherd said that he would like to consider this before Mr. Royle approached Dr. King. 6. Turning to Taiwan, Mr. Royle said that he had taken with him a letter from Mr. Heath to Chiang Kai-Shek. He, Mr. Royle, had been unable to see Chiang Kai-Shek personally (the latter had been involved in an accident and was not seeing visitors) and in the circumstances had arranged for the letter to be delivered. This he assumed
had been done. Mr. Royle said that the contents of the letter were innocuous a short message expressing good wishes and doubted whether it could be exploited by the Nationalists for propaganda purposes.
7. Mr. Royle said that he had met many local Ministers and others whose names had been given to him by Mr. Julian Amery. He had seen the underground defence works, which had impressed him greatly. He doubted, however, whether the local assessment that they could withstand a military attack from Red Chine for as long as twelve months was realistic. His own guess was about four months at the longest. He mentioned a visit to the southern part of the island, where he saw propaganda baloons being launched. He assumed that they would fall uselessly in the paddy fields of Red China, but said that they helped keep up Nationalist morale in Taiwan.
8. Mr. Royle said that during his visit to Taiwan there had been some talk of K.M.T. activity in Hong Kong and he had felt bound to express the hope that there was no question of the Taiwan authorities using Hong Kong as a base for
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