CODE 18-77
ED. 12/76
RESTRICTED
Reference
ber
Mr Ling
Hong Kong and General Department
T W KWOK, SPECIAL COMMISSIONER IN HONG KONG
1.
LAKK Oval,
IMULK
1 & APR 1979
J27.4
A
59฿
Please refer to Section III c) Chinese interest in official representation in Hong Kong, of the draft Research Memorandum (my minute to Mr McLaren, 6 April).
2. Paragraph 4 mentions the appointment of one T W Kwok as "Special Commissioner of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs" to Hong Kong in November 1945. You may be interested to read Sir Alexander Grantham's (Governor of Hong Kong, 1947-57) comments on the man :
3.
-
"The most notable difference of opinion [between the Governor of Hong Kong and HM Ambassador in Nanking] occurred over the question of the proposed appoint- ment by the communist Chinese government of a diplomatic representative in Hong Kong. Such a one Special Commissioner was his title - had been appointed immediately after the war when the Nationalists were still in power. With the recognition by Britain of the new régime in China in 1950 he withdrew. Exactly what his functions and authority were was not closely defined. To have attempted to have done so might have been embarrassing to all concerned. It certainly would have been to the Hong Kong government, but T W Kwok the Special Commissioner, tried to be helpful in his dealings with us, save in one instance [his opposition to the clearance of squatters from Kowloon Walled City in 1948] when he over-reached himself to the tribulation of Hong Kong, Nanking and London. 'T.W.', a graduate of Harvard and Cambridge, was a bon-vivant and man of the world. His wife, Grace, was as beautiful as she was charming; an accomplished pianist and a keen supporter of the YWCA. A few years after the Kwoks had gone to America, I asked Mrs Kwok's sister, who was living in Hong Kong, what Grace and T.W. were doing. 'Oh, Grace is doing the washing-up and T.W. is drinking his way into society', she replied. Actually, I believe, he was teaching at a university."
(Alexander Grantham "Via Ports: From Hong Kong to Hong Kong" Hong Kong University Press, 1965, pp 106-107).
Facing page 100 of Sir Alexander Grantham's book is a photograph of Mr Kwok in the company of Bishop Ronald Hall and the author himself.
P.4. Welds
12 April 1979
MA
Quahbell 12 19/4
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Far Eastern Section Research Department
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Crower
of 9/40 (folio 5m),
No comments yet.
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