Memorial. In those cases they were over with relatively little disturbance.
At the end of the day we were all as shocked as anyone by the brutality of that night on 3rd/4th June, but I can assure you that within the Embassy itself and those who are following these events clearly we sent the most accurate reports we could, in which we collaborated with the other NATO and European embassies. We were sharing news right through the whole ten weeks, and the Foreign Office I believe found our reports pretty accurate of what was going on including our analysis at the very end, three despatches from myself explaining how it had happened and what British policy ought to be afterwards.
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Mr David Sumberg: But what Mr Joplin said in his question, which you have no doubt read, was that he and others went down to Tiananmen Square that night and talked to the students, and came back with a very different view of events than had apparently been given to them at the Embassy. Are you saying that the different view was not given to them at the Embassy?
Sir Alan Donald: I do not recollect we were giving evidence. If you recall we were at an Embassy overseas and I thought we were having a discussion generally at the time. I do not remember that we spent a lot of time on the incidents in the Square; we were talking about trade and other matters as well.
But I am quite sure that the reports we sent to the Foreign Office were pretty accurate of what the students were saying, what the build-up was not only in Bejiing but in other cities as well.
It
Chairman: I do think that memories do get confused about these affairs. Perhaps a question we could ask you now Sir Alan is how you would sum up the whole Tiananmen thing? remains an important shadow over our present and future view of China. Was it an accident? Were the wrong people in the military getting out of control? Or was it an inevitable outcome of the style of government in Peking?
Sir Alan Donald: It was a very complicated and complex situation, and I know that Sir Richard has told you things to a
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