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Argument
3, At the end of Mr. Long's discussion with the Head of
Far Eastern Department on 17 October, Mr. Long said that he
accepted that the correct course, for the present, was to wait
now for the release of Hsueh P'ing, the New China News Agency
correspondent imprisoned in Hong Kong. Hsueh will be released
on 16 November. Like ourselves, Mr. Long is prepared to wait
in the hope that the release of Heueh will result in the release
of Mr. Grey; but, also like ourselves, Mr. Long is concerned
about the situation with which we shall be confronted if the
release of Hsueh does not in the event secure the release of Grey.
4. It might be better if the Secretary of State did not take
the initiative with Mr. Long in raising the matter of an amnesty
in Hong Kong. Our discussions with the Governor on 25 October
underlined the difficulties. There was general agreement that
an amnesty for any considerable number of convicted prisoners was
quite out of the question. Mr. Long may also press the
Secretary of State to consider at least the release of Lo Yu-ho,
the only other N.C.N.A. correspondent imprisoned in Hong Kong.
While we have at no stage encouraged Reuters to believe that we
would necessarily be ready to make this concession, it is
nevertheless something which has been canvassed in the Press,
notably in the "Sunday Times" of 20 October. Mr. Long is
therefore likely to put it as a possibility to the Secretary
of State and we should be ready for this eventuality.
if Grey is not released by December we may well have to consider
/ the desirability
However
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