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recently been canvassed in some sections of the press here).
But such action might well prove difficult to put into effect
and in any case would be most unlikely to secure the release
of Mr. Grey. Moreover it might well lead to retaliation
against the Mission or other British subjects in China and
would reverse the trend of such slight progress as we have
been able to make towards a better state of Sino-British
relations. I think therefore that we must continue to resist
pressure for any such action. (The arguments are being
developed in greater detail in a separate paper.)
9. As for action in Hong Kong, there are two tactical
considerations to be taken into account.
a) Chinese reluctance to name a price for Mr. Grey is
encouraging to the extent that it can be interpreted as
indicating that they have not taken a firm decision to
stand out for the 13 newspaper workers. It seems likely
that this reluctance will continue. Indeed I would be
opposed to trying to push them into naming a price since,
once they had done so formally, it would be very difficult
to dislodge them from it even if it were quite out of the
question. This means however that we would be most
unlikely to have any firm guarantee that any step we took
in Hong Kong would in fact result in the release of Mr. Grey.
Any gesture would therefore have to be to some extent an
act of faith.
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/ b)
Given the