SECRET
Nanking telegram No. 736 to Foreign Office
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such as Reuters and the North China Daily News which do not (repeat not) yet appear to have been prevented from operating. It is nevertheless likely that the Communists will soon be taking steps to force the closing down or to muzzle these channels of free speech. If they do só it. would provide us with convenient pretext for closing the Communist news agency in Hong Kong, and, for that matter, elsewhere
in British territory without necessarily stating that such action is retaliatory. e should, of course, in this event, have to be prepared for subsequent Communist with- drawal of the embargo upon these British news distributors. But even if they should happen to adopt such tactics as a means to their claiming reciprocal cancellation of any ban on the New China News Agency, it is unlikely that the Communists would permit the British press to publish news free of censorship. Therefore if they were to impose such restrictions upon our freedom of publications in China we could reasonably claim justification for doing the same to theirs in British territories.
Foreign Office please pass to Hong Kong as my telegram No. 180.
[Copies sent to Telegram Section Colonial Office for repetition to Hong Kong]. sent as tel.663
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