1,500M 2/69 Hw.
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
(118281) Dd. 391599
Registry No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
DRAFT LETTER
To:-
G. C. Hamilton, Esq.,
Acting Colonial Secretary,
Colonial Secretariat,
Type 1 +
From
12.
W. S. Carter
Telephone No. & Ext,
Department
HONG KONG,
..In Confidence
Mar
Marxis Bryan takt
瞥
Migh
X 11
Thank you for your letter of 27 February
concerning the premature release of the notice of
Mr. A. M. McMullin's promotion to Puisne Judge.
2.
We have looked into this and it seems clear
that the embargo was in fact broken in Hong Kong, probably Presumably by the South China Morning Post or by the
Associated Press representatives. Our News
Department released the information at 1500 hours on
5 February under embargo until 0001 hours on
6 February. AP sent the news by telex to Hong Kong
at 1830 hours BST on 5 February, clearly under embargo
until 2300 hours GMT (i.e. midnight, BST). In this
connection, you may care to see the enclosed copy of
AP's telex message.
3.
It has been suggested that in fact the South
China Morning Post broke the embargo technically only
by 12 hours, in order to get the news into that day's
edition.
4.
If you feel that it would be a help to you and
would ensure that this situation does not recur, we
could consider altering our embargo time to suit your
local needs, i.e. making the time of release an hour
earlier, which would allow inclusion of such items in
Perhaps you would let me know
the morning editions.
your feelings about this.