TNAG-0033-FCO40-69-Relations-with-China-1968 — Page 11

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NOTES ON ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION

WITH THE GOVERNOR OF HONG KONG:

22-23 OCTOBER, 1968

879

MR. GREY OF REUTERS

Mr. Grey has been held under house arrest in Peking since 19 July, 1967. The Chinese took this action in retaliation for the arrest of a New China News Agency correspondent in Hong Kong, Hsueh Ping. Sir D. Hopson was allowed to visit Mr. Grey in April this year in exchange for a special visit to a number of Chinese journalists and news workers imprisoned in Hong Kong. We have on several occasions raised with the Chinese the possibility of exchanging Mr. Grey for Hsueh. The Chinese have never responded. In view of this, we asked the Governor of Hong Kong on 30 August to conduct a covert probe to try to find out what price the Chinese would exact for Mr. Grey's release.

2.

The probe was conducted by a former member of the Hong Kong Government through a British intermediary who in turn was in touch with a prominent mainland Chinese representative in the Colony. It was agreed that we should indicate to the Chinese that we would be ready to offer the release in Hong Kong of both Hsueh and another NCNA correspondent, Lo, in exchange for Mr. Grey. At the Governor's insistence however the instructions were that Hsueh (due out on 18 November) should be offered first and Lo (due out in September 1969) reserved if necessary for a further meeting.

3. The covert probe took place in late September but did not go as planned. The British intermediary reacted strongly against making any offer of exchange to the Chinese on the grounds that if we got into a negotiation the Chinese would be bound to raise their terms probably demanding the release of all imprisoned newspaper news workers as a quid pro quo. Following a series of meetings between the intermediary and the Chinese representative, a message was delivered purporting to come from the Chinese Prime Minister, Chou En-lai, stating that he was concerned about Mr. Grey and would act "when the opportunity occurred". The intermediary added that the mainland China representative, Li, had received instructions not to go ahead with discussions about an exchange, as Peking would prefer simply to release Mr. Grey "in their own good time", which would, in his view, be in the fairly near future; 1 January had been set as the target date for a return to normality in Sino-British relations.

4.

The Governor of Hong Kong indicated that he accepted the message at its face value. On the basis of many years experience of the British intermediary's services the assessment was that he was reliable and had faithfully retailed what the Chinese had told him. The Governor of Hong Kong therefore strongly recommended that matters should be allowed to take their course and that we wait for the release of Hsueh with full remission on

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18 November