FO371-46253 — Page 40

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THIS

MARGIN.

Registry

No. F 5847/1147/G.

Page 40

تار

PERSONAL

J.F.B.

30/$

TOP SECRET.

Draft.

Sir H. Seymour,

Chungking.

(From Mr.

Sterndale Bennett)

hurtition

3018

Dear Horace,

3 Migquent, 1945.

F5557/167/6

With reference to paragraph 3 of Foreign

Office top secret telegram No. 933 of the 19th

August giving the exchange of telegrams which

passed between the Prime Minister and President

Truman on the subject of the surrender of

you cangled Wknow

Hong Kong, I should add that when the United

States Secretary of State informed T.V. Soong

of the contemplated action he stated "that it

did not in any way represent United States views

regarding the future status of Hong Kong".

Washington have now telegraphed to say that

according to a State Department official who

discussed Byrnes' remark with T.V. Soong himself, Soong apparently took Byrnes to mean, not that the

United States Government wished to raise the

question of the future status of Hong Kong, nor even that they considered it an open question; all that was intended, in Soong's opinion, was to

state that in the view of the United States

Government military proceedings for the surrender

of Hong Kong and political questions affecting

Hong Kong had no connexion with one another.

This seems a rather elastic interpretation;

still, it is something that T.V. Soong should so

interpret this cryptic remark.

Your

NOTHING

TO

BE

WRITTEN

IN

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