TNAG-0020-FCO40-56-Facilities-for-US-Forces-1967 — Page 81

CONFIDENTIAL.

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Peking telegram No. 1070 to Foreign Office

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from Hong Kong to go back to Da Nang. This incident aroused the strong condemnation of the masses of the inhabitants of Hong Kong.

spite all this, the spokesman of the Colonial Office of the itish Government asserted that United States troops were in Hong Kong only "for leave and recreation". The spokesman of the United States Department of State also quibbled on the same pretext and clamoured that the United States forces would continue to use Hong Kong. This has exposed not only the gangster features of the United States aggressors, but also the collusion of the British and the United States Governments.

The criminal activities of the United States aggressor forces in Hong Kong have not only endangered the peaceful life of the inhabitants of Hong Kong and the safety of their life and property, but also posed an increasingly grave threat. to the security of China and of Southeast Asia. The fact that the British Government allows the United States aggressor forces to use Hong Kong as a base for their increasingly rampant activities while the United States Government is escalating its war of aggression in Viet Nam and stepping up its military provocations against China cannot but arouse the extreme indignation and serious attention of the Chinese Government and people. The British Government's support to aggression is entirely one of deliberate hostility to the people of China and the whole world and intolerable to the Chinese Government and people. The Chinese Government hereby lodges a strong protest with the British Government against it.

The Chinese Government firmly demands that the British Govern- ment immediately adopt effective measures to stop all the activities of the United States aggressor forces in Hong Kong and cease turning Hong Kong into a base of operations for the United States aggressor forces. If the British Government should allow Hong Kong to be drawn into the whirlpool of the United States war of aggression, it must bear full' responsibility for all the consequences arising therefron.

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs avails itself of this opport unity to renew to the office of the British Chargé d'Affaires the assurances of its high consideration.

Ends

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CONFIDENTIAL