COLONIAL SECRETARIAT FILE
No.
TSX. 15/64
No:
Alar Arthur,
TOP SECRET
525
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONG KONG.
26th April, 1968
Please refer to the exchange of telegrams ending with our No. 459 of 10th April. In the event John Keswick did see Li Choh-chih on his return from Japan and you may like to see his version of the interview in the attached account. Incidentally, well before the interview, a message was passed to Li through our indirect contact with him, making it clear that Keswick had asked for the interview on his own account only.
There seems to us to be little of special significance in what Li is reported to have said. The question of the "detainees" is one on which the local communists can be expected to feel strongly. The strength of their feelings, in turn, shows that the retention of the detainees is an important card in our hands. If, as the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs seems to have suggested in his talk of 13th April with Hopson (Peking telegram No. 302 to the Foreign Office), there is some prospect of our being asked to hold "discussions" with the Chinese on major Hong Kong problems it would seem particularly unwise to make any major concessions on this important issue before the "discussions" begin.
Yours ever,
Michael
M.D. Irving Gass.
A
R.104
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Sir Arthur Galsworthy, KCMG., Commonwealth Relations Office, Downing Street,
LONDON S.W.1.
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