CONFIDENTIAL
6.
We are taking course (a) because we see no future in arguing
about lists of names and detailed arrangements for visits at long
range in Peking. It will involve a constant process of reference back to Hong Kong on both sides. We cannot be sure that it will
be any easier to initiate satisfactory two-way exchanges with the
Chinese in Hong Kong than it would be in Peking, but at the very least a series of single messages can be more speedily exchanged
in Hong Kong. And it has weighed heavily with me in favour of leaving the detail to be settled in Hong Kong that this would give the Governor a much better control of the facilities to be provided. I have this advantage particularly in mind because
an st
I think that strict control over the category of prisoners visited, therefore of their numbers, is a point the Governor had very much Fling 201) in his mind when he sent his personal telegram No. 186 to
Sir Arthur Galsworthy.
Copies to:
Sir A. Galsworthy
Mr. Hall
7. (b) has been adopted in deference to Sir Donald Hopson's views that to hold back on this point might endanger the whole
deal.
If these were negotiations in the true sense of the word there might be some point in holding this card back, but the whole history of these exchanges has been a series of offers and counter offers separated by longish intervals. On the under- standing that this present package of ours constitutes our final offer it is my view that we should put all the ingredients in at once on a take it or leave it basis.
8. Arising from this last point, I wish to draw attention to paragraph 12 of the Submission (to the inclusion of which I made it quite clear to my colleagues in the Foreign Office I attach great importance). It brings to the notice of Ministers our conclusion in this Department and the Far Eastern Department of the Foreign Office that with these proposals we shall have gone as far as we can to gain access for Grey by means of concessions in Hong Kong. If the proposals fail then we must resort to bringing pressure to bear on the Chinese through publicity for Grey's case or perhaps return to the possibilities of exchanging him. Our recognition that we have reached the end of the road in this matter of an exchange of visits is something too that the Governor will wish to know and may very much determine his attitude to the proposals we are putting forward; it has been inserted as paragraph 6 in the first draft telegram.
It is also,
I think, necessary that Sir Donald Hopson should know where we
stand on this.
bus Carbe 6.5.
(W.S. Carter)
23 February, 1968