FO371-35824 — Page 19

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Minutes.

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This memorandum was handed to me to-day by Lord Halifax, who mentioned to me that Dr. Hornbeck had referred to this subject on more than one occasion.XDr. Hornbeck's line of thought appeared to be not only that no pressure should be placed on Great Britain to return Hong Kong to China but also that Great Britain should retain sovereignty over the island while placing it at the disposal of the United Nations to be used as a base in any scheme of collective security for the Pacific that might be set up. The remarks. concerning official opinion in the United States contained in the accompanying memorandum refer to this.

Lord Halifax wondered whether there would not be advantage in our making up our minds to plan for a solution of this kind and even of announcing publicly our intention in advance so as to fore- stall a Chinese agitation for the unconditional return of Hong Kong to China which might receive powerful backing from public opinion in the United States. I told Lord Halifax that some such idea had already been under consideration here at various times during the past 12 months but that the official view was that any declaration of our intentions in regard to Hong Kong in advance of the cessation of hostilities was undesirable.

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19th August, 1943,

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