Cypher
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INWARD TELEGRAM
TO THE COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (The Secretary of State)
FROM HONG KONG (0.A.G.)
D. 18 July 1967 R. 18
11
0840Z
(332
08031
IMMEDIATE
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No.1061
Your telegram No.1425.
Confrontation.
298
Action taken since 12 July against various premises and other targets has furnished a valuable dividend but raises one particular problem. As a result of this action we now hold 15 persons of special intelligence and security interest. Twelve of these are trade union officials closely involved in organising the strikes and violence, while one schoolteacher and two film stars are responsible for subversive activities. These are key leaders but none is a member of an official C.P.G. organisation here. Further similar arrests may have to be made.
2. We wish to make the fullest use of their intelligence potential by interrogation and it will not be desirable to charge them in the courts because no admissible evidence is available in these cases. It would be possible to attempt deportation and if that failed to resort to the tribunal procedure for detention. We have little indication as to whether persons in this category would be accepted by China or not and I have not fully examined the implications of putting this to the test. There are, however, objections at the present time to putting these persons before the detention tribunals whether deportation is attempted or not. Moreover some may not be aliens.
3. In these circumstances I wish to bring into operation now Regulations 29, 30 and 31 of Part III of the Emergency (Principal) Regulations (Cap.241). This would enable me to set up committees of review instead of using the formal tribunal and also to detain any persons who were able to establish a claim to be British subjects.
40 It would, of course, be my intention to use these provisions most sparingly in the cirsumstances outlined above and not for punitive purposes.
5. I should be grateful to learn very early whether you see any objection to this action.
(Passed to F. E. Dept. Foreign Office and to Private Office
for Commonwealth Secretary)
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/Distribution