TNAG-0028-FCO40-64-Relations-with-China-1968 — Page 153

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Mr. Carter

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You minuted to Mr. Godden on 12th January, for information of the Minister, about the possibility of

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some form of amnesty for prisoners in Hong Kong, including the idea of introducing suspended sentences for such prisoners. Since then, further telegraphic exchanges have taken place between Hong Kong, Peking and ourselves.

2.

Hong Kong telegram No. 92 contains some very strong arguments indeed against any major act of clemency at the present time. In fact, the Governor goes so far as to say: "I see every reason to believe that if we take a decision to make releases in Hong Kong, the C.P.G. would merely pocket the concession and would ask for more; and would continue to do so at least until a point had been reached at which Hong Kong's interests had been gravely damaged."

This view is shared by the Foreign Office and ourselves at the official level.

3.

However, the Governor goes on to make a suggestion (para. 5 of Hong Kong Telegram No. 92) that we try out on the Chinese the idea of deportation (although we would not necessarily use that word) of a number of those either in prison or in detention in Hong Kong. The Governor suggests that this exercise should be started off by the presentation at the border of two Communist Chinese film starts who are at present under detention in Hong Kong. The local Chinese authorities would have been give prior notice of this act. If they accepted the two prisoners in question and if the Chinese gave any indication that released prisoners might be accepted into China in this manner, the next step might be for our Charge d'Affair in Peking to pursue the question of exchanging one or both of the N.C.N.A. prisoners in Hong Kong for Mr. Grey. If this ploy also succeeded we could try to repeat the exercise with others in the hope that, in time, the C.P.G. attitude towards our Mission in Peking might soften. The two Chinese Communist actors have been selected for the purpose of starting off this exercise because the Communist Press in Hong Kong reproducesa story (which had first appeared in a right wing newspaper at the end of December) that there were plans to deport the two actors in question to Taiwan.

There was no

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