TNAG-0029-FCO40-65-Relations-with-China-1968 — Page 67

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Background

3. After protracted exchanges in Peking we agreed that

additional visits would be granted to the 2 N.C.N.A. corres-

pondents and an unspecified number of "patriotic journalists"

in prison on the understanding that access would be granted

to Mr. Grey, the Reuters correspondent. Agreement in principle

having been reached, it was left that the detailed arrangements,

including the submission of the list of prisoners' would be

handled by N.C.N.A. in Hong Kong. At the meeting with the

Political Adviser on 21 March (Hong Kong telegram No. 363),

the N.C.N.A. produced a list of 22 prisoners. One had already

been released and the remainder contained the names of five

labourers employed by the Wen Wei Pao and two newspaper sellers.

Te considered that these seven did not fall within the category

of bona fide journalists to whom we had agreed visits might be

granted, although the N.C.N.A. argued the phrase had been

"patriotic newspaper employees" not "journalists". They also

raised the question of the number of visitors to each prisoner

asking that it should be four and not two as we had stipulated.

4. The Chargé d'Affaires was instructed (Foreign Office

telegram No. 283) to raise these points in Peking, pointing

391 out that in the case of categories of prisoners the N.C.N.A.

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appeared to be diverging in principle from what had already

been agreed between him and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Sir D. Hopson reports (Peking telegram No. 239) that the Deputy

Director for Western Europe at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign

Affairs supported the N.C.N.A. claim that all 21 prisoners

/should

CONFIDENTIAL