CYPHER/CAT A
CONFIDENTIAL
PRIORITM HONG KONG TO COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
Telno 1487
CONFIDENTIAL
4 October 1967
152
(D.T.D.)
TOP COPY
Addressed to Commonwealth Office telegram No.1487 of 4 October. Repeated for information to Peking.
Peking telegram No. 100 to Foreign Office:
Prison Visits.
Hsuch Ping is a prisoner Visits to such people
Unfortunately, we have a real difficulty. convicted in the courts of a criminal offence. are governed by the "prison rules" made by the Governor-in-Council in 1954 in pursrance of the Prisons Ordinance (CAP. 234, Section 25). The relevant portion (paragraph 48 on page A-18) reads as follows:-
"No persons other than relatives are friends of a prisoner, shall be allowed to visit him except by special authority. Such visits by relatives and friends shall, subject to such restrictions as may be imposed for the maintenance of discipline and order in the prison and for the prevention of crime, be allowed in the manner following
(a) They shall be allowed to visit a prisoner once a month and
no more than three persons shall be allowed at one time;...
2. Hence, under the existing law it is not open to us to forbid visits to Hsueh Ping unless they should constitute a threat to discipline and good order, which so far they have not. The law could of course be amended by the Governor-in-Council. But it would be extremly difficult to draw an amendment which discriminated against the particular class of prisoner in question; and in any case discriminatory enactment of this kind, besides being objectionable in principle, would be certain at this particular time to attract a great deal of attention and controversy.
My reluctant conclusion is that matters had best be left as they are, but I should welcome your views.
3m
Please pass Peking telegram No. 565.
Sir D. Trench
Sent 0738Z 5 October
Recd. 0745Z 5 October
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[Repetition to Peking referred for departmental decision]
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-7 OCT1967
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CONFIDENTIAL
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