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Ambassador in Chungking as to the best method of approaching the Chinese authorities with a view to securing the desired assurance.
3.I suggest at the same time that you also obtain the Ambassador's unofficial reaction to a proposal that a Branch Office of the Hong Kong Planning Unit should be set up now in China, manned in the first instance by one or two civilians with the object of con- tacting, earmarking and ultimately re-engaging suitable Chinese
personnel as indicated above for duty in Hong Kong. This personnel would be largely drawn from ex-Hong Kong Civil Servants and the Branch Office of Hong Kong Planning Unit in China would be entrusted with the general responsibility for arranging that they were where we want them when we want them. Presumably the Branch Office might be attached to the Embassy on the lines of the existing Accounts Office but its headquarters might have to be established in South East China, possibly Kweiyang, and would in any case probably have to be mobile.
4. The proposals in paragraphs 1 and 3 seem to me a prerequisite of any effective planning. Please tele-- graph results as soon as possible. It is not (repeat not) intended that any approach should be made to the Chinese authorities at present, but merely that you should consult His Majesty's Ambassador and then report here.
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