CONFIDENTIAL
INWARD TELEGRAM
TO THE COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (The Secretary of State)
FROM HONG KONG (0.A.G.)
Cypher
D. 26 June, 1967. R. 26
#1
0915Z
27
JUN
263
1967
10
2
3
CONFIDENTIAL
No. 915
RAUL VED IN
ARCHIVES No. 63
COPY FOR REGISTRATION
Addressed to Commonwealth Office (D.T.D.) Repeated
27 JUNIY6/
MLA/17
248
RES
Tokyo No.29
Peking No.360
(please pass to both)
Your telegram No. 1228.
Confrontation in Hong Kong.
An additional means of putting pressure on the Chinese in the present situation would be to make difficulties about the grant of transit visas through Hong Kong to foreign communists and fellow travellers visiting China.
2.
Japanese communist visitors might be specially singled out for attention. According to the New China News Agency in the past few weeks at least three such visitors have openly come out in condemnation of "British fascist atrocities in Hong Kong" while here or in China. The people concerned are Kuyichiroo Nakamura of the Japan-China Friendship Association (see N.C.N.A. 6 June); Takeichiro Matsuoka of the Japanese Association for the Promotion of International Trade (N.C.N.A. 10 June); and Akira Tanaka of the Japanese Local Assembly Union for the Promotion of International Trade (N.C.N.A. 17 June). We can see no good reason in principle why facilities to pass through Hong Kong should be granted to categories of people who are likely to abuse the hospitality of the colony in this way. We should be grateful therefore if Tokyo would reject out of hand any further applications for any sort of Hong Kong visas from these three people.
3.
It seems very likely that the majority of Japanese pro-communist visitors who pass through Hong Kong en route to or from China will be pressed to make objectionable statements of the same sort. Subject to your views, our present feeling is that we should refuse visas to Japanese in this category except in cases where H.M. Embassy Tokyo think that positive good is likely to result from their visiting China.
4.
There may be difficulties in the way of refusing visas to communists from other countries, e.g. positively identifying them and being sure that they are on their way to China. Furthermore,
it may not be in H.M.G.'s wider interests to discourage the flow through Hong Kong of people
LAST
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NEX.
ROF
282,2851
282-360
CONFIDENTIAL
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