IFE
737/18/910.
OUTWARD TELEGRAM
[This telegram is of particular secrecy and should be retained by the authorised recipieht and not passed on].
Cypher/OTP
Secret
No: 802
DIPLOMATIC DISTRIBUTION
FROM FOREIGN OFFICE TO NANKING
D. 2. 20 p.m. 16th July, 1949.
16th July, 1949.
Repeated to Shanghai No. 384,
Paris No. 1602 Saving.
Washington No. 7121,
PRIORITY
مجھنے
SECRET
Addressed to Nanking telegram No. 802 of
16th July, repeated for information to Shanghai Washington and Saving to Paris.
Shanghai telegram No. 564: [closure of N.T information department].
We are examining possibility of retaliation by requiring closure of New China News Agency in London and have asked United States Embassy to enquire the views of State Department on this first reaction.
Such action on our part might ential the risk that Communists in their turn would close Reuter's. We should welcome your views and those of His Majesty's Consul-General Shanghai both on this possibility and also on the value you attach to the continued operation of Reuters in China. We cannot help feeling that since press correspondents have already been forbidden in North China their prohibition elsewhere is probably to be expected in due course so there might be advantage in anticipating this by reacting as proposed to this first attack
on an official organisation as such.
We shall not take any further steps in this matter until we hear your views.
11111