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CONFIDENTIAL
us that the sick prisoners may provide such an
opportunity.
There are already firm precedents
both in the Colony and in this country for the
release of prisoners on medical grounds. You cite
a good example from 1969 in your letter.
It is also part of the Review Board's remit under
Rule 69A(1) that the prisoners state of health should
be taken into account in the review procedure.
4. [We doubt
We doubt therefore whether local Hong Kong
opinion would pay very much attention to the release
a limited minutes 56)
of genuinely sick prisoners, especially those
suffering from really serious illnesses such as,
for example, cancer. I notice from Hong Kong telegram
No. 133 of 1969 that the releases then caused no
stir at all. Still less are they likely to excite
interest a further year-and-a-half after the end
But the Chinese would undoubtedly
Ar the same time.
ん
they are
of confrontation.
see this as a significant gesture.
unlikely to make a propaganda jamboree out of any
such releases since this would jeopardise further
moves in this direction. Tur enquiry is, of course,
predicated on the assumption that the prisoners
concerned are genuinely sick and that they were not
guilty of especially heinous offences during 1967.
If we find, for example, that some of them were
convicted of very serious crimes then they would
obviously not qualify, unless there were pressing
medical grounds for their release in any case. I should
tro emphasise t
position whereby the Chinese effectively select sick
have to prisoners for release on our behalf. Each case will/be
that we have no intention of slipping into a
judged on its merits.
-2-
15.
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