FO371-41657 — Page 4

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To:

Mr. G. E. J. Gent.

Copy.

7th March, 1944.

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After the conference on 10th February with members of the Colonial Office and the Foreign Office which I had the honour of participating, you kindly requested me to put down on paper any matter which I consider to be of importance.

*

In complying to that request, I submit hereunder a few matters which I consider worthy of information and consideration of H. M. Government.

You will note that these items were not dealt with at that conference and even if they were, I should consider it inappropriate to discuss them, there and then, owing to their delicate nature.

Time will permit me only to submit in generalities

and in the briefest manner.

You will pardon me if I ask you for obvious reasons to treat this communication with the strictest confidence.

1. Ever since the fall of Hongkong, it was my firm resolution to escape into free China with the view to ascertaining the future status etc. of Hongkong vis-à-vis Great Britain and China, and also in what way such information could be made available to H. M. Government in London.

It is only natural that I should entertain such an unusual interest in this matter, being a British subject and a British graduate, having my home and interests in Hongkong. On the other hand I was favoured by fortune, in having so many friends who are in the forefront of officialdom in the Chinese capital. Indeed, when I reached Chungking, warm and ready welcome were accorded me. Not only was I in a propitious position to ascertain their views in regard to Hongkong without exciting curiosity, I was also able to impress on them my own feelings which in the main are, that China must first of all put its own house in order, etc.

During my four months of residence in Chungking as a guest of a very high official I had unique opportunities to

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discuss

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