TNAG-0029-FCO40-65-Relations-with-China-1968 — Page 14

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CONFIDENTIAL

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IMMEDIATE HONG KONG TO COMMONWEALTH OFFICE

Telno 395

CONFIDENTIAL

29 March 1968

ни

(407

Addressed to Commonwealth Office telegram No. 395 of 29 March

Repeated for information to Peking.

Your telegram No. 558: Prison Visits.

I accept that eligibility for visits is strictly speaking a matter for discussion in Peking, but seriously doubt if there is anything to be gained by referring the matter back to the M.F.A. again at this stage. This could provide the opportunity for them to raise new points; and would certainly result in delay if we allowed sufficient time for a report of the Peking discussion to get back to N.C.N.A. before approaching them here. If however, it is thought that the need to keep matters of principle to discussions in Peking is of over riding importance, then this principle could be preserved by a simultaneous approach: that in Peking being on rather more abbreviated lines.

2. If we were to return to the charge with N.C.N.A. I should prefer to deal first with the number of persons to be visited. We could say that we had learnt from Peking that there had been a genuine misunderstanding due to translation difficulties. Our acceptance of visits to bona fide journalists had been expanded in translation to newspaper employees: and while we were not pleased at this mistake on their part, we accepted it was a genuine misunderstanding and would extend our agreement to include genuine newspaper workers. We would then say that on further consideration we might perhaps be prepared to agree to three visitors, on the understanding that they included two newspaper representatives and one N.C.N.A. man only in each case. (This is of some importance for practical reasons they have only named two N.C.N.A. visitors and we were hoping to arrange for one to be in each of the two visiting rooms simultaneously. We do not want to increase the N.C.N.A. presence by having two in each room if it can be avoided).

3.

Thereafter we would argue that the two newspaper boys were not genuine newspaper workers: and would attempt to bargain three visitors against visits to these two boys, conceding both points if necessary once we were sure that neither the thoughts of Mao nor any new issues were being raised by them. We would then present a suggested programme on the basis of whatever was agreed.

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