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3
maintained on the Chinese through the diplomatic channel.
Similar considerations have applied in some other cases, in
particular that of Mr. Crouch, Second Officer of the Blue
Funnel Line ship "Demodocus", where there is some contact,
albeit tenuous between the Chinese and the Company.
5. The main objection to Mr. Cradock's case is, I think,
that he exaggerates the degree of interest which it would
be possible to stimulate in either the British or the foreign
press about the fate of British subjects. There was
naturally very considerable interest about the time
Mr. Grey was arrested in July 1967 and this has been sus-
tained in the case of Mr. Grey personally. Members of the
Mission continued to attract attention from the time that
the Mission was burned until the remaining exit visas had
been granted. The whole question of British subjects was
aired again when Sir D. Hopson left China. This was rapidly
followed by Czechoslovakia and since then public attention
both here and abroad has been focussed on this, on Biafra,
and on, for example, the possibility of a flare up in the
Middle East and so on. As the Foreign Office statement on
Mr. Johnstor and the more recent statement about Mr. Grey's
health show, the press has to some extent become inured to
Chinese unpleasantness. They are more likely to give
prominence to particular cases if there is some "human
interest" angle rather than in response to a Foreign Office
statement.
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16.