W(B)L 51-7433
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted. Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
......In Confidence
DRAFT
LETTER
Type 1 +
To:-
From
The Editor,
Telephone No. & Ext.
'The Times'
Department
Sir,
#
news pūman
between the cases of A. Grey and of the detainees.
Mr. John Rear attempts to argue that the
case of Mr. Grey, detained in Peking,
is
comparable to the cases of the thirty or so
detainees still in custody in Hong Kong, and
says that "like Mr. Grey, they have simply been
held".
On a point of fact Mr. Rear should know
that the reasons for Mr. Grey's detention, as
stated by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on 22 Jul
1967 were that "in view of the Hong Kong
·British authorities' unreasonable persecution
of the correspondents of the Hong Kong branch
of the N.C.N.A. and other patriotic newsmen,
the Chinese Government has decided to limit
the freedom of movement of the British Reuters'
correspondent in Peking until further notice".
Unlike the treatment meted out to Mr. Grey,
these "newsmen" have all been charged, tried
and sentenced in the courts for offences
#
against the law of Hong Kong. Furthermore
First,
I would like to point out a few dissimilarities
which Mr. Rear has omitted to mention.
not even the Chinese Government, with
considerable honesty, have ever suggested that Mr. Grey either misbehaved or did anything to
offend them. He has simply been detained.
The detainees in Hong Kong, on the other hand,
ލ
were