CONFIDENTIAL
INWARD TELEGRAM
TO THE COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (The Secretary of State)
FROM HONG KONG (Sir D. Trench)
Cypher
D. 31 May 1967 R. 31
#1
It
0900Z
A
184
IMMEDIATE
CONFIDENTIAL
No.743
Addressed to Peking No.290 Repeated
#1
Commonwealth Office
(C.O. please pass IMMEDIATE)
Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank here heard from Self, their manager in Shanghai who is now due to leave, that he was told this morning (31 May) that before his exit visa is granted he must "apologise for all the crimes" committed by the Hong Kong Bank since 1949. He was due to have another meeting this afternoon to discuss the matter.
2*
The bank have told him to ask for full details of the alleged "crimes" before saying anything.
3. They speculate that the intentions of the Shanghai authorities may be either:
(a)
to try to force the Chairman of the bank here to make some sort of "confession"; or
(b) to close the bank's Shanghai Branch down if
no admission of guilt is made by the local manager.
The bank would do not wish to Chinese.
of course be delighted to agree to (b), but give the remotest indication of this to the
4. Bank would not wish any action to be taken on Self's behalf until they have further information and are able to assess the situation further. But they (and we) would be most grateful for your views on the points in paragraph 3 above.
(Passed as requested)
Distribution H.K. W.I.D. 'C'
T
I.G.D. Aid Dept.
J.I.C. External Distribution
DEPARTMENTAL DISTRIBUTION
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CONFIDENTIAL
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