FO371-31667 — Page 105

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Minutes.

Page 105

Page 105

(c) Mr. Young thinks that the best policy would be to leave things as they are, although he admits the anomaly, to say the least, of British subjects continuing the work of an important enterprise for the benefit of the Japanese. (I told him that the war was being fought on the principle of "scorched earth" whereas at Kaiping we had an instance of the principle of "limited liability").

Mr. Young holds the above opinion for two

reasons:

(1) He points out that what is important is not the production of coal but the shipment. And he claims to be convinced that Mr. Nathan and the ex-naval gentleman at the port can be relied upon to be as slow as possible about the turn round of ships and to restrict the flow of coal to the greatest possible degree,

(2) Admittedly as a minor point, the presence of British executives secures decent treatment from the Japanese for the Chinese personnel.

When I asked Mr. Young what he thought the Japanese would do if the British executives declined to work for them and submitted to internment, he said that they have plenty of people who could do the shipping end, though few who could operate the coal fields. few, however, he thought would certainly be concentrated at Kaiping above all places.

These

I told him that we would study, his note carefully together with the Company's letter (of which he is obviously very much ashamed).

His address is the Thatched House Club, St. James's Street.

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