HONG KONG TELNO.35 TO PEKING
-18 APRIL, 1970
164 1
RESTRICTED
+8
ADDRESSED PEKING TELEGRAM 35 OF 18 APRIL RFI FCO.
YOUR TELEGRAM 157: PROPERTY OF BRITISH SUBJECTS IN CHIRA.
PLEASE COULD YOU ASK THE MFA ABOUT THE STATUS OF MRS MARTIN'S
PROPERTY IN SHANGHAI. IF POSSIBLE IT WOULD BE BETTER TO KEEP THIS
SEPARATE FROM YOUR APPROACH ON MCBAIN.
2. WE HOPE TO BE ABLE TO SEND A COPY OF MCBAIN'S LETTER TO CHINA
TRAVEL BY NEXT BAG.
FCO PLEASE PASS ROUTINE TO PEKING
SIR D. TRENCH
[REPEATED AS REQUESTED]
Nurse (65
FILES
CONS. DEPT.
FAR EASTERN DEPT. HONG KONG DEPT.
GGGGG
RESTRICTED
pare.5.
RESTRICTED
MAYS
SCR 1/1167/55 VIII.
Mirbanty
I have arready
Fre
22nd April, 1970.
winter, after suis Martin's nephew spike to me
hurl you SM.15
Here are two copies of McBain's letter to China International Travel
Service, Shanghai. (Hong Kong telegramn No. 35). Please could one of
them be passed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in whatever way and
with whatever gloss you think appropriate.
2.
-
You will probably have heard about Connie Martin From Michael Wilford
who sav her while he was in Hong Kong. She has recently had a slight
relapse the matron at the Matilda had varned us to expect this when the
excitement of release vore off and the admirable qualities which stood
her in such good stead with the Shanghai Public Security authorities are
proving a mild trial to the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank.
3.
-
یا
She is hankering, poor old thing, for her possessions in Shanghai;
especially for the diamonds given her by her husband two rings, a bar
brooch and a vátch (or bracelet). I don't think that she seriously hopes
to get them back, but if the M.F.A. do not specifically confirm that her
property has been confiscated (para. 9 of my letter of 9th April to
Colin Wilson) she will probably wish to refer to China Travel in
Shanghai as McBain has done.
4.
I am sending a copy of this letter to Len Appleyard in Far Eastern
Department.
H. Ll. Davies, Esq.,
PEKING.
(C.J. Howells)
Assistant Political Adviser.
Encls.
164
RESTRICTED
[
+
Flat 120, Estoril Court, Garden load, Hong Kong.
14th April, 1970.
China International Travel service,
Shanghai, People's Republic of China,
Dear Sirs,
Until my departure from China in February this year I rented a flat in
the wei Hai building, 1202/704 Ilusi Hai La Central, Shanghai, in which
I left all my personal effects. I should now like to appoint you as my
Agents to pack all these effects and transport them to Hong Kong. Would
you please be good enough to confirm that you can undertake this on my
behalf, I will be responsible for the costs, which will be remitted to
you from Hong Kong upon receipt of your account.
My present address for correspondence is e
V. 2. Helain,
Flat 140, Estoril Court, Garden Load,
Hong Kong.
I should like all sy effects to be packed and erated
and sent by rail to Kowloon Hailway Terminus, from vhence I will arrange
to collect. Insurance during transportation in China will not be
necessary. Please let me know
Flease let me know if there are any other formalities with which to
comply.
The Office of the British Charge d'Affaires has spo to the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs in Peking about this matter. I abould be grateful if you
would try to expedite despatch as much as possible.
Yours faithfully,
V. 2. Hellain,
E
Fac 14/1
Far Eastern Department
24 April, 1970
bo
Please refer to your letter of 15 April to the Secretary
of State, which has been passed to me. I apologise for not
returning the photograph of Mrs. Martin earlier, and now enclose
it. Thank you for letting us see it.
I must take this opportunity to tell you how very pleased
we all were at Mrs. Martin's release,
M. Kepple, Esq.,
Brambledown,
Welton Drive,
8 tourington, Sussex,
م بھی
Par. 287
2574
(P. J. Roberts)
HISZEN DA. 391999 1,500 2109 Hw.
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
DRAFT Letter
To:-
M. Kepple, Esq., Brambledown
Melton Drive,
Stourington,
Sussex.
+4
In Confidence
Type 1 +
From
P. J. Roberts
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
Please refer to your letter of 15 April to the
Secretary of State, which has been passed to me, Ι
apologise for not returning the photograph of
Mrs. Martin earlier, and now enclose it,
for letting us see it.
Thank you
I must take this opportunity to tell you how very
pleased we all were at Mrs. Martin's release.
19:24/
4
<.M. 7.4
CONFIDENTIAL
Reference.
( ?
disgorged
Mr. Morgen
Roberty
Arrest of Mrs. Martin
This letter is of considerable interest. Perhaps the most striking point
is the haphazard and unplanned way in which Mrs. Martin's arrest (and
that of Mr. KcBain) was ordered in Shanghai on the basis of vague
circumstantial information and what amounts to a general feeling among
Shanghai security officials that, though they could not put their finger
on precise evidence, Mrs. Kartin was up to no good. This is of course
the way the Chinese security officials deal with their own people the
idea being that evidence of a kind is bound to be unearthed in the
course of interrogation. In any case, they would be under no obligation
to provide an explanation to the Chinese if, even after prolonged
investigation, they were unable to uncover any damaging facts.
2.
-
Another implication of Mrs. Martin's case is that, as we suspected, the
operation was undertaken by Shanghai officials off their own bat and
that Mrs. Martin was only disgoed after representations or enquiries
from Peking. Clearly the Shanghai officials made a hash of the whole
affair, which is presumably why they resorted to crude blackmailing
tactics at the end to try to hush up the matter.
3. The suggestion in paragraph 6 of Mr. Howell's letter that a case may
be in preparation against Mrs. Lucy Chang sounds ominous and all too
likely.
As you will remember, Krs. Chang is a British subject (she is Scottish)
and has a son in Shanghai by her Chinese husband. Her son is prevented
from leaving Shanghai since the Chinese regard him as a Chinese citizen,
and this is why Mrs. Chang did not attempt to leave China after the
suicide of her husband. Mrs. Porta is not a British subject (she is, I
think, Russian) and I doubt if the Shanghai officials would be able to
make much of her. We can only hope that the mess which the Shanghai
authorities made of the cases of Mrs. Martin, Mr. McBain, Captain Ray
and Second Officer Duff, will finally have prompted Feking to take a
firm line with Shanghai. But this may well be a forlorn hope.
Enter a cary Hayasuto P.U.S,
Research Dept.
I.RO.
Lux preggo
(L.V. Appleyard) 16 April, 1970
Mr. Munay miunted (on Hongkongtel.
1
wo. 219)
that we ought to consider whether to make a formal purkst
CONFIDENTIAL
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to the Chinese about their disgusting
treatment of Mt. Martin.
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When
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One
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30.294.
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PR.20/iv
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30.4
C.S.A
26000777
10,000-10,69-374265
SCR 1/1167/55 VIII.
Dean Colin
CONFIDENTIAL
COLONIAL SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD HONG KONG
9th April, 1970.
Mrs. Constance Martin
Hong Kong telegram No. 219 promised a fuller
report when we had spoken to Mrs. Martin.
2.
-
She is in good health and resilient spirits and is remarkably uncoved by
her experiences. She appears to have kept up a lively dialogue with her
principal interrogator right to the end he accompanied her to the border
and when she had been made to read the works of Mao and other communist
material in prison she would cite it for her own ends. Her aim in the
dialogue vas to express vell-bred indignation at her treatment, What her
interrogators wanted, or indeed why they arrested her when they did is
less clear,
3.
She was taken to prison in her dressing gown in the early hours of 23rd
October, at the same time as McBain, though she was unavare of his
arrest until she reached Hong Kong. She was painfully handcuffed and
made to bow in apology for police photographers who also took many
pictures of her house. Immediately afterwards she vas taken to the
Nantao detention centre and charged, in her first interrogation, with
unspecified acts unfriendly and dangerous to the Chinese people.
4.
At the detention centre she was kept in a cell with occasional solitary
yard exercise. There vere tvo meagre meals a day, water to drink, and
constant surveillance by pettily vindictive women warders, She was not
allowed to rest during the day, she did not get the weekly allovance of
hot water, was forbidden to wear a cardigan for yard exercise, and could
not shut her window in cold weather. But her bedding and a fev toilet
things were fetched to the prison from her home.
5.
Her interrogation took place in vhat was called a courtroom at the
prison. She sat in an upright armchair (with straps to hold down the
occupant, which in her case were not used) before her interrogator who
was at a table
c. Wilson, Esq.,
Far Eastern Department,
Foreign & Commonwealth office,
London, S.V.1.
CONFIDENTIAL
contd./...
CONFIDENTIAL
2-
with an interpreter, a stenographer and occasional observers. She was
told at the outset that the Chinese government knew all and that she
would be treated leniently if she confessed. But there were no specific
charges. To begin with the interrogations were held daily, but the
frequency later diminished to once a week or less. She signed the record
of each interview, not without protest at inaccuracies. As the process
continued five points crystallised from the demands for biography and
general confession:
How did they know this?
(a) Slander. She vas accused of having said
"Dann Mão Tse-tung" and of having blamed the Cultural Revolution on
Chiang Ch'ing. The gulf between her and her questioners must have been
clear to them in her explanation that her "Damns" vere conversational
and insignificant and that she thought Mao had too kind a face to have
started the Cultural Revolution himself.
(b) Collecting information. In particular she was said
to have shown interest in where Mao might stay
in Shanghai, and to have mentioned this to Garside when he visited
Shanghai from Peking shortly before her arrest.
Apparaty dhe torch Mr. (c) passing information.
Garside about the Muous while driving
around S'hai In a bank on the
car:
driver which have
eavesdropped.
ок
Onc. 2/7
지구
1
This mainly concerned a contribution on Shanghai which she had typed for
the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank's centenary publication.
(d) Illegal consular activities.
This charge vas based
on 29 letters she was said to have exchanged with Peking, all concerned
with charity for members of the British community in Shanghai, Her
interrogator also suspected that she had received instructions vhen she
said goodbye to Hewitt and Whitney when they left Shanghai in 1967.
(e) Currency offences. The Chinese authorities knew that Mrs. Martin had
from time to time exchanged JMP for HK$ or sterling to help members of
the foreign community vho were leaving Shanghai. They seem to have
opened her file when Harres of "Messagēries Maritines" mentioned this to
them
during the course of his interrogation. He was arrested in the
early-"605. They also knew that she had changed money for Mrs. Rachel
Levy who left Shanghai in the late "60s.
CONFIDENTIAL
contd./...........
6.
CONFIDENT! AL
3
Mrs. Martin's questioners shoved no interest in Johnston, but they vere
clearly keen to extract as many Chinese names from her as possible. She
was also asked in detail about Mrs. Anna Porta, the widow of the former
custodian
of the Italian Consulate, and about Mrs. Lucy Chang, a British subject
whose Chinese husband, a former Nationalist naval officer, killed
himself in the early stages of the Cultural Revolution. It is possible
that cases may also be in preparation against these ladies.
7.
She once caught a glimpse in the prison corridor of Kostrometinoff, the
former "South China Morning Post" Shanghai correspondent.
8.
Mrs. Martin clearly thought that her M.B.E., her purely social
conversations with members of the Mission from Peking and her assistance
to British subjects and other
But she foreigners in Shanghai contributed to her troubles. vas puzzled
by her arrest, as well she might be. During her interrogation she denied
any hostility to China and her absence of rancour must have been
apparent. In the end she signed a formal acknowledgement of unspecified
anti-Chinese offences, and wrote an extensive confession, which they
asked her not to make too long as it had to be translated. There were
other signs of haste at the end of her imprisonment which she
interpreted, perhaps correctly, as a response to representations made to
the Chinese government.
9.
It is possible that her last interview with "a fat, unpleasant-looking
man" whom her own interrogator deferred to vas a trial in Chinese eyes.
In any event there was a sentence. She had to bow in apology while told
that she must leave immediately for Hong Kong. She thinks, but is not
certain, that her possessions were also confiscated, Her passport is
marked "Deported" and is stamped with the "Seal of the Chief of the
Shanghai Public Security Bureau".
10.
The interrogator and interpreter, together with a warder and wardress,
escorted Mrs. Martin on her train journey to the border. She seems to
have taken the opportunity to make representations about her servants
and the cats left behind at her home in Shanghai. The interrogator at
last
The cats were dead. implored her not to go on.
He had earlier observed that preoccupation with animals vas a
characteristic of imperialists. So it was concern for her servants and
cats rather than self-pity which accounted for Mrs. Martin's tears at
the border which some newspapers noted.
CONFIDENT L
contd./.................
+
CONFIDENTIAL
4
11.
Just before she crossed over she was told by her interrogator to mention
only that she was arrested for espionage, and to say nothing about her
imprisonment. Otherwise the pictures of her boved in apology would be
published. It may be that the Shanghai authorities vant to draw a veil
over the absurdity of it all, or even that they have reported the trial
to Peking in rather different terus. Meanwhile Mrs. Martin is planning
to return to England. It is a sign of the character which brought her
through an unnecessary ordeal with flying colours that after spending 68
of her 72 years in Shanghai she speaks of this as "going home".
12.
I am sending a copy of this letter to Hugh Davies in Peking, and will be
writing to him separately about Mrs. Martin's property.
Yours w
Christophen
(C.J. Howells) Assistant Political Adviser.
CONFIDENTIAL
HEALTH
OFFICE
TO APR 1970
ALTOONS BET10
FEC
14
Secretary of State,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, LONDON, S.W.1.
Dear Sir,
FE
6
Brambledown,
Melton Drive,
Storrington,
Sussex.
15th April 1970
re Mrs. Constance Martin
With reference to my letter of the 16th March and the subsequent
telephone conversation with Mr. Roberts (Ext.161), please return the
photograph of Mrs. Constance Martin as requested.
We are of course naturally delighted that the Chinese have decided to
release her from detention.
Yours faithfully,
шикни
M. Kepple
An ungracions deste, as was to De expected.
Draft reply, with photograph,
тери
FOR 23 / 2V
23/iv
to issue.
1
I
·
I
FEC
Reference.
JI ------ILI.
54
by
Mr. McBain's Property.
the agreed that the shared await
the comments of fur. McBain and his relatives which wise me doubt be
passed on to Pering the Political Adviser in stang Kang. Failing A
response from hting Kong in the nest couple of weeks, I riggers that we
rend a chater to remind them.
Ar the manent
my
own new iŠ that
while for formal reasons we shared an or
на
Rission to keep up pressure on the MPA, through
sending follow-up
Noves (and if necessary by a
N
further interview), the best answer would be
for
the relatives to passure
their enquires
though CTS in Hong Kong
Linfreeyor 3/4
Please B/U this
Enter
(msmear depot (ham Bromage)
16/4
is file 17/4
file
Pleone Blu 2 more
•weyks
its
How swee
330
a Peking te w
A 444 above.
P.FOR.
I
Reference.
:
Mr. Wixom
Mr. Magway ens
Haffiily retaken by
Red & dfore.
I
Mrs. MARTIN
Mr. Aitkenhead's letter of 19 March
나
at (44). I have acknowledged.
Mr. Taylor telephoned
fare
انات
morning,
hin the addresses f
Chinese Chargé d'Affaires in
, and I
| the
London
and
of
Premie Chon En-lai,
:
the
said by alteration was
ん to siend
a large greeting card to the Chinese
mission here
(he seemed particularly
exercised about the choice of
ctorial subject) and a smakar
card
to
China alluding to their
Landen initiative.
I also suggested that
quotation from
Chairman
مسار
night
go down better than a
poem by
Киото-то
about Earth
very
Anothe",
/mith
I with Mr. Taylor had untended to
I begin his letter.
تسبها
25/0
58
CONFIDENTIAL
CYPHER/CAT A
RECEIVED IN
PRIORITY HONG KONG
REGISTRY N: 50
TO FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
TELEGRAM NUMBER 219.
3 APRIL 1978.
FEC 14/1
CONFIDENTIAL ADDRESSED FCO TELEGRAM 219 OF 3 APRIL RFI PEKING.
MY TELEGRAM 215: MRS CONSTANCE MARTIN.
155
MRS MARTIN 16 BEING TAKEN CARE OF BY THE HONG KONG AND SHANGHAI
BANK AND IS RESTING IN COMFORT UNDER OBSERVATION AT A HOSPITAL
GUEST FLAT. DESPITE HER YEARS AND RECENT EXPERIENCES, SHE SEEMS
TO BE IN REASONABLE HEALTH AND SHOULD SOON BE ABLE TO DISCUSS THE
REASONS FOR HER ARREST, HER TREATMENT UNDER INTERROGATION, AND
WHETHER OR NOT THE PROCESS CONSTITUTED A TRIAL. MEANWHILE WE
UNDERSTAND THAT SHE WAS HANDCUFFED ON ARREST, CHARGED WITH SPYING
AND LODGED IN A CELL. THE INTERROGATION WAS INTENSIVE AND SHE SIGNED
AT LEAST ONE CONFESSION. SHE KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT CROUCH AND
JOHNSTONE.
2. A FULLER REPORT WILL FOLLOW WHEN WE HAVE SPOKEN TO HER.
FCO PLEASE PASS PRIORITY TO PEKING
GIR D.TRENCH
[REPEATED AS REQUESTED]
DEPARTMENTAL DISTRIBUTION
F.E.D.
CONS DEPT.
H.K.D.
NEVS DEPT.
I.R.D.
I.P.D.
RES. DEPT. (F.E.SECT)
Mr. How received
tree. We shd.
1910/4
amount the promited report.
? Ruban 15/4
Mr. Maxray
We shall kaos in