NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
CONFIDENTIAL
a.
a series of releases (no grand gesture);
b. an offer to the Chinese to deport the
hard core whose sentences cannot be reduced.
3. The Chinese have not made a major issue of
this question for some time but lose few opportunities
to mention it. For instance, Mr. Tam Dalyell MP
gave the Chinese an undertaking to "look into"
the question after his visit to China in November.
Four British subjects are still detained in China.
Although the Chinese have been careful not to link
them with Hong Kong there is little doubt that we
should find it easier to make progress on their
cases if the "confrontation" prisoner issue were
resolved.
4.
Of the remaining 17 prisoners, 12 are due for
release in the normal way in 1973 and 1974 but 5
have even longer sentences, including 2 life
sentences.
5. The Governor is fully aware of our interest
in an early solution of the problem. It is recom-
mended that the Secretary of State should not take
the initiative in raising this matter; but if the
Governor mentions it the Secretary of State may
wish to ask what prospects the Governor sees for
advanced
further
releases this year.
6. There may be some public interest in the
question. After the announcement of the 3 latest
releases there were press reports that it was an
open secret that London was bringing pressure to
bear on the Hong Kong Government to speed up
3 CONFIDENTIAL
/releases.