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recent statements made in the House by the Prime Minister and
the Secretary of State on Mr. Grey and accused H.M.G. of
deliberately stimulating "an anti-China outcry on the Grey
question", and asserted that "the British Government will
absolutely achieve nothing in its effort to force the Chinese
Government to change its just stand. This unreasonable action.
does not help to solve the question but only makes it more
complicated".
4. The N.C.N.A. statement follows closely the arguments used
in the Hong Kong press during the last month and was published
in the People's Daily alongside a report of a press conference
given by the Hong Kong editor of the Ta Kung Po on 20 December
at which he made three demands on the Hong Kong Government,
"immediate cessation of all beatings and maltreatments of the
imprisoned patriotic Chinese, immediate abrogation of the
so-called "emergency regulations" of the Hong Kong British
authorities, and immediate release of all the patriotic Chinese
now illegally detained in the prisons and the concentration camp".
5. This is the first occasion on which the Chinese authorities
in an official statement have linked the detention of Mr. Grey
with that of the thirteen news workers in Hong Kong (now reduced
to twelve following the release on 20 December of one prisoner).
In so doing the Chinese have come close to naming their price
for Mr. Grey. On the other hand a close examination of the
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