SECRET
Background Note for the Secretary of State
Hong Kong
Plea
Border Talks
The original proposal that local border talks should be held came
from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peking, on 20 October as a result
of representations made by Her Majesty's Government following a series
of border incidents which had culminated in the abduction of Senior
Inspector Knight on 14 October.
There have so far been seven meetings with the Chinese border
authorities (on 1, 3, 14, 15, 17, 18 and 21 November), all of which have
taken place on the Chinese side of the border at Shum Chun. The Chinese
refused to meet our request for meetings to be held on alternate sides of
the frontier. The Chinese have throughout insisted that no publicity should
be given to the talks; a limited amount of information has, however, leaked
to the Press.
At the first meeting the Chinese representatives put forward the
following demands:
(1) the return of five Chinese who had been arrested for offences
on British territory,
(2)
the removal of the obstruction erected by us at Man Kam To
Bridge,
(3)
the removal of the wire fence (erected in 1962) on the fields
of peasants from Chinese territory,
(4) compensation for peasants for losses sustained as a result of
our closing the Man Kam To Bridge,
(5) compensation for peasants whose family graves were destroyed
at the Man Kam To military positions.
With some reservations, particularly on (4), it was considered that
these demands could be met, provided that the Chinese agreed to our own
/demands
SECRET