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defendants we see in the dock against the Hong Kong photographs (which may in practice be not 100% useful)? What about the children and perhaps some others who may not appear at all? Amnesty has, after all, claimed at least two children dead.
5. Post-trial, I am afraid I do not see any end to the possibility of Amnesty accusations. Judging by their current methods they will no doubt be able to whip up more "reliable evidence" (which they will also be unable to reveal to us) that although prisoners, say, Nos 1 to 25, were sentenced to a year for illegal emigration, they are in fact going to be held for two years and given hard or dangerous duties as prisoners mean- while. There is no point trying to cross our bridges before we come to them, but you may wish to reflect that such a situation could easily arise and it would be much better prevented if possible.
6. On the current situation, I would merely repeat that, whereas Amnesty's allegations of maltreatment ought not to be disregarded, there are so many journalists here alert to the implications of this story that I find it incredible that they should only come up from Amnesty. Of course there has always been a case for checking on treatment and we have had in mind
(170) that this is one of Lord Goronwy-Roberts' requirements
see
I
Stuart's letter to me of 26 July. But we have also of course had Bac's statement of 30 July confirming what he said to Mr Hattersley, "namely that the 118 illegal emigrants who had been repatriated from Hong Kong are being treated fairly". hope I am not going to be proved wrong but in the absence of serious evidence to the contrary I believe that the Foreign Minister is sufficiently privy to the workings of the police and military machine in this country to know what he is saying.
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You
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Tour Bushes
J C W Bushell
CC: Political Adviser to the Governor, HONG KONG
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