File TAYLOR, GF 5/1 - Papers relating to SOE operations in China and South East Asia, 6-21 Dec 1944

Letters, telegrams and memoranda received by Taylor during his tour of India and South East Asia, on topics including an increased SOE role in China and preparations for forthcoming meetings between US Gen William Donovan and Lord Louis Mountbatten (Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia, SACSEA). Also briefings and policy documents on Siam (Thailand), French Indochina (FIC, now Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos), clandestine Allied activities, Operation Remorse (for illicit currency trading and commodity smuggling in China), and Taylor’s recommendations for personnel and resources for SOE activities in South East Asia Command (SEAC) and China. File includes: an update on Allied military progress in the Asia-Pacific region by Sir William Stephenson (G, head of British Security Co-ordination, BSC, in New York); correspondence, draft proposals and policy documents on the formation of a joint Anglo-American authority in China to co-ordinate clandestine activities; letters from ‘AD 4’ [Col Bickham Aldred Cowan Sweet-Escott] reporting on events at SOE London, discussing proposals for Anglo-American co-operation in clandestine activities in China and South East Asia, and concerns over the effectiveness and future of Special Operations Australia (SOA); a memo on future Force 136 operations on the China coast; draft telegrams from Mountbatten to General Albert Wedemeyer about clandestine Allied operations in China; ‘A summary of the negotiations between Force 136 and the Central Government of China'; ‘SOE plans for Burma, Siam, Malaya’, including comment on intelligence received from Pridi Banomyong (aka Ruth, Thai Prince and resistance leader) and British and American policy towards Siam.