CONFIDENTIAL
wt does damage competence (e.s of the "Tolare) it well have imparted H.K's capacity to
meet fimy
threat".
followed by a reversal of prosont communist policy, a new
offensive and new demands. In the worst possible case,
the making of such a gesture would hardly have impaired the
Hong Kong Government's capacity to take any necessary measures,
as it has so successfully done in the past. We should
have lost nothing but our illusions and we would have a
clearer understanding of the Chinese position.
Conclusion
18.
No course is without its risks;
but the arguments
I submit are overwhelmingly in favour of a flexible
rather than a rigid policy. We are faced with a serious
situation; the continuance of confrontation is the cause;
sitting tight in Hong Kong will not suffice because things
are unlikely to improve of themselves whereas the situation
could well deteriorate; it is therefore in our interest
not only to keep the temperature down end to avoid action
in the colony likely to inflame Sino-British relations
further, but also to explore the possibility of gestures
that could lead to an end to confrontation;
and we must do this
not just in the interests of this Mission, but for the sake of
other British subjects in China, our political and commercial
relations with China and also, in the last analysis, the
best interests of Hong Kong itself.
I am not suggesting
that it would necessarily be right to declare an annesty
here and now. I would have thought that next New Year's
Day (by which time the groat majority of the prisoners will
have been in any case released after serving their full terms)
CONFIDENTIAL
/night