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3 CONFIDENTIAL
they will not release Mr. Grey until the eleven journalists
are released. But even if they were released, we could not
be sure that Mr. Grey would be allowed to go free in return.
The difficulty was that the Chinese have never mentioned
a price for the release of Mr. Grey. The Chinese
Chargé d'Affaires whom the Minister of State met last week
had given no indication of Chinese intentions regarding
Mr. Grey. All the Chinese had ever said was that they
would not release Mr. Grey until the detained journalists
in Hong Kong had been released: this did not necessarily
mean that they would release him once the journalists were
freed. Without knowing the price the Chinese wanted paid
for the release of Mr. Grey there was a danger that if we
took up too much of the running, the Chinese would only
increase their demands. Notwithstanding the difficulties
we were doing our very best to ascertain Chinese intentions
and were beavering away at all efforts to secure Mr. Grey's
release. Lord Shepherd said he could not be optimistic
that we would succeed. All he would say was that last
week, after his meeting with Shen P'ing he was extremely
depressed; but since then there had been a few signs which
had led him to believe that there was a faint glimmer of
hope. The glimmer was, however, very faint and he would
not wish to raise hopes too high.
6. Both Mrs. Grey and Mr. Maw, after thanking Lord Shepherd
for the information, assured him that they would treat
what he had told them in the greatest confidence.
CONEET !TIA!
Air Mew