FO371-31667 — Page 131

Registry No.

10 F4237/888/10

A.L.S.

1576 Drag. Ps.

Mr. Floud,

Ministry/of

Information.

(From/Mr. Scott)

Cable & Airways

Section (M.

Callender)

Dear

Page 131

Floud.

Page 131

162

F.0.

16 June

1942.

Thanks for your letter FP.47/143 of 5th

June in connexion with communications between

this country and missionaries in China.

You are right in supposing that it would be

illegal for any person in this country to address

any communication to another person in enemy

or enemy-occupied territory c/o a third person

in Allied or neutral territory unless the

third person had been duly authorised to act in

can be that capacity. I gather that this done by

a

the issue of a notice by our Secretary of State

and of an authority to the Postmaster General

to accept such correspondence through the post

for transmission to enemy or enemy-occupied

territory.

The real difficulty in connexion with postal

communications with China is the inability to

delimit accurately the area of occupied and Free

China respectively, and it is true that within

the Post Office definition of occupied China

there is a relatively large part of territory

which is in fact not actually in Japanese

occupation. An accurate definition of occupied

China, however, is somewhat impracticable

owing to lack of the necessary information

together with the fluctuating nature of Japanese

occupation.

As I see it, there are two aspects of the

problem: (a) that relating to territory which is

known to be occupied by the Japanese, and (b)

that relating to territory about which we have

NOTHING

Page 131

no

/

Page 131