TNAG-0030-FCO40-66-Relations-with-China-1968 — Page 43

RECEIVED IN

ARCHIVES No. 63

CONFIDENTIAL

2 2 APR 1968

F

Cypher/Cat A

нилор

IMMEDIATE HONG KONG

ΤΟ

COMMONWEALTH OFFICE

20 April 1968

Telno 498

CONFIDENTI AL

507

COP

Hiw

20 April,

Addressed to Commonwealth Office telegram No. 498 of

Repeated for information to Peking.

So3) Your telegram No. 678: Prision Visits.

I agree that we should avoid being drawn into discussions, which might well prove interminable. On the other hand, I would not favour a meeting at which our representative merely listened to Communist complaints and made no reply: for that would suggest that we were finding difficulty in answering and would also give NCNA good grounds for blaming us for procrastination. My preference would be to give NCNA a short and sharp reply to their points by telephone. If they persisted in trying to argue thereafter we could advise them to address their complaints in writing to the Commissioner of Prisons.

2.

Reports from the warders present during the visitors' conversations with prisoners show that the NCNA have embroidered a good deal on what the visitors were told. Most of the prisoners complained about having to stay in their cells for long periods, but they also made it clear that they were all allowed an hour's exercise a day. Some of the prisoners complained about the quantity of food, but these complaints were not universal: and although one prisoner said there was sand in the rice (as NCNA have alleged to us) another denied it. None of them to our knowledge complained of bad health.

3.

lines:-

Our proposed reply by telephone would take the following

403 517

(a) No prisoners are in "strict isolated confinement".

220

of the confrontation prisoners work for a considerable period each day outside their cells. Others have refused to work and remain in their cells during normal working periods, but all of these get daily exercise in groups for an hour.

(b) The incident at Laichikok Prison was in fact provoked by

foolish behaviour by the Communist prisoners. Two of them as a result received light bruises, but they were immediately given as much medical attention as they required in the prison hospital.

(c) The prisoners' food supply is fixed at 3,000 calories a

day. And it can be supplemented on medical advice.

The food is prepared by the prisoners themselves and they are hardly likely to put sand in their own rice.

CONFIDENTIAL

/(d) Full