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5.
I must apologise for the length of the preceding paragraphs, but it is against this background that we have been considering your letter of 19 January to the Chief Secretary. We cannot prevent Mrs unger returning to long Kong, as you can see from the above, because she is a Hong Kong belonger, having been born here. Jonathan Unger, who is, we presume, American, would be able to come here as a tourist for a short visit, but would probably need a residence visa if he were to stay and work here for any length of time. We would not necessarily wish to keep him out either, although I have not discussed these cases in detail with Immigration Department. But what we do have qualms about is the prospect of the British Government being seen to be financing a pioject, which will enable the ungers, and in particular Mrs unger, to stay in Hong Kong and pursue her political activities here, which are likely to cause us embarrassment in our relations with the People's Republic ¡ of China. I am sure that you can yourselves imagine the repercussions of a headline in the more scabrous European press here (of which we have several examples) claiming that H M G is giving financial support to "Trotskyites". Although Miss C may turn over a new leaf and not indulge in New Left political activities while researching here, she will undoubtedly be in contact with her old ex-ked Guard friends, who constitute the sources for her research work. Being the sort of character she is, I doubt whether she will have the strength of mind to divorce her research from politics. From the academic point of view, both she and particularly unger are, I believe, up to scratch, but as we said in para 3 of our telegram ODEV 8 of 15 February, the project is unlikely to have any useful application in Hong
ong. Moreover, it is difficult to see how valid conclusions could be drawn without a visit to China itself to see the village in question, and it seems unlikely that the Chinese will give permission for this, particularly in view of Mrs unger's political activities. However, we do not wish to usurp your function of deciding on the academic merits of the case. We only want to avoid, so far as may be possible, a political row with the Chinese which might involve our Ambassador in Peking.
6.
Our only other advice is that you may like to discuss this quandary with the Far Lastern and Hong Kong Departments of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to whom I am copying this letter. They will be able far better than I to fill you in on the political mances involved. They may in turn like to consult P U S D, who I believe will have material on hrs unger.
(CD) 3 Drace-Francis)
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I C orr Esq
FED, FCO
DF Milton Esq
HD, FCO
NM Fenn Esq Peking
CONFIDENTIAL