CONFIDENTIAL
RECOMMENDATION
3.
I recommend that I be authorised to inform Mr. Long
that for the present we think that we must continue to stand
firm in Hong Kong; but we fully sympathise with his desire
to shorten Mr. Grey's ordeal, and if nearer September it seems
that the prisoners could be prematurely released in Hong Kong,
without serious consequences for Hong Kong in the short or
long term, we shall certainly consider this.
ARGUMENT
4. We have hitherto seen three dangers in the premature
release of convicted prisoners in Hong Kong:-
(a)
We believe that it would damage public confidence
in the Colony. It might also be interpreted by
the Communists as the'kow tow'which the Chinese
have been seeking. We should thus be tacitly
acknowledging their ability to influence events in
the Colony at their whim. Mr. Long has argued
that the release of the newsworkers could equally be
presented as an act of strength demonstrating that
the Governor, successful in his "confrontation"
policy, had sufficient confidence in the security
situation to regard the risks of release as negligible.
But it is not so much the immediate security situation
that concerns the Governor as long-term confidence.
Any action which might lead the inhabitants of Hong
Kong to conclude that we have lost cur nerve could
quickly be disastrous. We cannot afford to
CONFIDENTIAL
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