IM
COMMITTEE
INTERNATIONAL
E OF THE RED
CROSS
CONFIDENTIAL
H.
HEFTI
1/6/2/ir
HONORARY DELEGATE I. C. R. C.
G. P. O. BOX 659 HONG KONG
CABLE ADDRESS:
INTERCROSS HONG KONG
TEL. 236131
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GENEVA
Confidenti a l
The Honourable,
The Colonial Secretary, Colonial Secretariat,
Central Government Offices,
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Main Wing 6th Floor Hong Kong.
Attn. Mr. A. Todd.
Dear Mr. Todd,
Hong Kong, June 25th, 1968
SAPK
CARE AL No. 2350
DOG! NOC CZ
ETTER
I refer to previous correspondence as well as a number of discussions.
· Since then, I have received further communications from Geneva. Some of the points raised are of direct concern to you and I am summarizing as follows:
1. The ICRC feels that its delegates should be allowed to disclose their identity/capacity when visiting Prisons, Camps, Detention Centres etc. The main reasons are a) the ICRC dislikes carrying out its activities in an almost "underhand" fashion and b) it is felt that detainees cannot or will not confide in a visitor whose object is unknown to them.
Is there a possibility that I may visit in future "officially"?
2. As requested by you, no publicity of my visits have been given
and the ICRC will also in future refrain from publicity on my reports. Nevertheless, they would like to "allude" to the visits by a short mention in their fortnightly topical news bulletin to National Red Cross Societies (these are also available to the Press). They would merely mention that in April and May an ICRC delegate was authorized to visit two prisons in Hong Kong in which were held persons convicted or detained following the events of 1967, and to talk in private with prisoners of his own choosing and that he then reported to the authorities. Would you be agreeable if such an item were published?
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3. The matter of the inside-cells at Victoria Road was as expected brought up. These are not consistent with the "Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Detained Delinquents" adopted on August 30th, 1955, by the First United Nations Congress for the Prevention of Crime and on the Treatment of Delinquents. These rules, subse- quently adopted by the UN Economic and Social Council, lay down, inter alia:
CONFIDENTIAL
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