CONFIDENTIAL
910
Cypher/Cat A
IMMEDIATE PEKING TO FOREIGN OFFICE
Telno 133 20 February, 1968
CONFIDENTIAL
Addressed to Foreign Office telegram No. 133 of
20 February,
Repeated for information to Hong Kong.
506
Hong Kong telegram No.212:
Prison Visits.
I am grateful for this clarification. I am however surprised to learn that under the existing rules it has all along been possible for an extra visit to a prisoner to be granted to an outside person (given compelling reasons and prisoner's agreement) without the prisoner having first to ask for such a visit and that an employer is usually granted one such visit. The position as stated in Hong Kong telegram 218 No.1908 was that special visits could only be granted on the prior request of prisoners themselves. On instructions I so informed the Chinese on 31 December. This has been a major sticking point in the negotiation.
LAST
2.
I think it a great pity that we should not have been informed of these possibilities in December when prison visits were first discussed, or even a few weeks ago when the question arose of access at Chinese New Year. Much valuable time would have been saved and we could almost certainly have secured access to Grey.
3.
Proposals now put by the Governor'in his paragraph 5 fall short of the first Chinese demand of 28 January (access to NCNA and "patriotic" journalists) in only one important respect i.e., it is suggested that employers and not NCNA would visit the "patriotic" journalists. I strongly recommend that we should include the NCNA in such visits i.e., propose a visit by the employer plus an NCNA official, for the following reasons:
REF.
206
(a) As for holding out on this one point we would endanger the whole deal;
(b) As pointed out in Hong Kong telegram No.206, in some cases the employers of the "patriotic" journalists are themselves in gaol and may not be easily available;
(c) By allowing the NCNA to participate in these visits we would not be making any admission of the NCNA's quasi Consular status. We could in any subsequent discussion justify our actions and if need be distinguish this from Consular access by pointing out that the NCNA was allowed visits to the journalists because it is a Press organization and that such visits did not mean that they had any right to visit other categories of prisoner.
/(a) I note
DEXT
ሕጊ
314+316
CONFIDENTIAL