TNAG-0029-FCO40-65-Relations-with-China-1968 — Page 141

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2

I therefore rejected his protest.

3. Hsuch replied that while persons concerned naturally did not refuse repatriation because all compatriots wanted to be able to go to the motherland, this was not the point. The British Authorities regard the two persons as prisoners and were attempting forcibly to deport them as such. The Hong Kong Authorities had used deceptive tactics to lure the 2 film workers to the border, saying that the matter of their return to China had already been arranged. Case of the 2 film workers was only an example. If we wanted to relax tension this was not the method. Hsueh then repeated the Chinese Government's demand as in my paragraph 1 above.

4.

In answer to my enquiry he refused to disclose whether the Chinese Government would publish their statement.

Foreign Office pass Immediate Hong Kong 143.

Sir D. Hopson.

[Repeated as requested]

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