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to the Chinese a more balanced view on world political
issues.
At a time when a solution of the Vietnam
conflict is at least conceivable, and our
Co-Chairmanship of the Geneva Conference may assume
a new relevance, we are cut off from any access to
Chinese leaders. It is true that the Cultural Revolution
and the current intransigence of the Chinese Government
would probably make such contacts rare and unrewarding
in any event; but as a result of our dispute with the
Chinese we suffer an additional and basic disability.
British
If any opportunity for diplomacy were to occur we certainly
could not seize it. The damage has also taken more
tangible forms affecting our interests. The volume
of British exports to China will fall sharply this year
and this is attributable in part at least to the
events of the past year. No British businessman is
entirely safe visiting this country. Cultural exchanges
between the two countries are non-existent.
subjects are arrested or detained in China: not only
Mr. Grey of Reuters, now under solitary confinement for
a year, but British merchant navy officers taken from
their ships, and the British community in Shanghai,
denied permission to leave and living under harassment
and fear. Virtually all British subjects in this country
are under some form of restraint, and we are unable to
exercise the most basic consular functions for their
protection.
Meanwhile we in
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