Cypher,bat.A
IMMEDIATE
SECRET
HONG KONG
ΤΟ
201
TOP COPY
COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (D.T.D.)
Telno. 1851
SECRET
11 December 1967
Addressed Commonwealth Office telegram No. 1851
of 11 December.
Repeated for information to Peking, Washington and POLAD Singapore.
(187)
1.
2.
187 Your telegram No. 2500: Chinese policy towards Hong Kong.
The present situation is as follows:-
Schools.
(a) The situation as regards Chung Wah School has altered. Present plans are apparently that its pupils should attend classes on the premises of one or other or three different Communist schools. The Chung Wah teachers were registered for that school only; and if they attempt to teach elsewhere we already have powers to deal with them. There may. thus be no need for the moment to proceed to the final deregistration of Chung Wah School as such, although the position is still not yet entirely clear.
(b) At present and until he has been fully interrogated there is a strong case for continuing to detain the headmaster of Chung Wah, Wong Cho-fan.
I doubt if he is
a sufficiently prominent figure to be of much use as a bargaining counter; but when he has been finally "debriefed" we could consider trying to deport him.
Press.
We have now by chance already made a concession here. On 8 December, before we received your telegram under reference, the assessment of damages against Ta Kung Pao in the case of an officer in Commerce and Industry Department (MacGregor) unexpectedly came up for hearing. We succeeded in having it adjourned to a date to be fixed. There have since been two developments:-
(a) Subsequently, i.e, during the last four days, the two major Communist papers have made no more approving references to bomb or other violent incidents.
(b) MacGregor has received through an old friend an approach from the Bank of China who have asked his motive in arranging an adjournment of the assessment of damages; and _what he wants Fei Yi-ming, the published of the Ta Kung Pao
to do or say in order to conclude the matter.
It was indicated that Fei could not print an apology as he was "not a free agent" in the matter, but the possibility of his meeting MacGregor. to discuss the problem has been suggested.
/3. It looks
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