8.
I believe that it would take considerable effort to provide comprehensive answers to all of the questions that Sengoku's colleague, Professor Kobayashi, raised. However, the outline above gives some indication of what some answers probably would be. Question II, about the handling of military yen by the British authorities, is dealt with in paragraph 4 above. For Questión III, about
possible survey of outstanding quantities of military yen, the information in paragraph 5 suggests that no major survey was done into this matter. For Question IV, it is doubtful if the Britrish Government received any report on wartime currency in the procedure leading up to the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty. Question I will probably be answered by the reply to the FCO telegram of 23 November 1945 (see paragraph 5).
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8. The information above was available quite readily from work have done on this matter before. I could undertake further research to find the answers to the questions but, as indicated in the quote from April 1946 (paragraph 5) and paragraph 6 of Mr Bradley's teleletter, it is not a matter that we should encourage enquiries into. I would suggest that we deal with the enquiry sympathetically by providing the information that we have easily available but do not carry out any extensive research effort. attach a submission and draft letter on this matter prepared to deal with an enquiry from the Hong Kong Reparation Association in January 1991. As you will see, it is but negative.
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9. I also attach a note on Sengoku. He is a first term Social Democratic Party member of the House of Representatives. As such he he is a very minor politician. I can think of no reason for his interest in Hong Kong reparations and believe that his enquiry is a continuation of the soul searching that took place in Japan towards the end of last year with the fiftieth anniversary of the start of the Pacific War.
Мне Mike Com
ME Cowin
Far East Section
Research & Analysis Dept OAB 2/126 210 6217
7 April 1992
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