SUN
CHINESE
SWAP
BORDER
CAPTIVES
By MICHAEL LAKE Diplomatic Correspondent
TWO Hong Kong police con- stables, held prisoner in China since they crossed the border by mistake on Sep- tember 29, were released yes- terday in exchange for five Chinese held by the British authorities.
The release of the two con- stables, both Chinese, followed last week's dramatic barefoot return to Hong Kong of Senior Police Inspector Prank Knight, whose home is at Dagenham, Essex.
It has been suggested that Inspector Knight was allowed to escape. Yesterday, the Chinese handed back his per- sonal possessions as well as a sub-machine gun, a magazine and two rounds of ammunition seized in another incident last August.
The border crossing at Man Kam To, closed since the abduc- tion of Inspector Knight on October 14, was reopened by the British authorities yesterday.
'Guilt confessed'
The two constables said after their release that the Commun- ists had forced them to sign a statement admitting gullt for taking part in the "suppression of Chinese compatriots in Hong Kong.'
"
The big question ROW whether China will respond to the freer situation in Hong Kong and release Mr. Anthony Grey, Peking correspondent of Reuters news agency.
Mr. Grey was put under house arrest in retaliation for the imprisonment of five Hong Kong Communist journalists.
GLSARDIAN
2 7 NOV 1967
Times
China frees two
policemen
Exchange with Hongkong
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT-Hongkong, Nov. 25
China today released two Chinese members of the Hongkong police force who crossed the bor- der into China by accident in Sep- tember. At the same time the Hongkong Government “de- ported five Chinese who had been arrested on charges relating to the kidnapping of refugees who had fled to Hongkong from China.
These conciliatory gestures between the Hongkong and Chinese authorities were not matched by any relaxation by the colony's own communists, who increased their violence over the weekend, injuring four policemen in bomb incidents today.
The two freed policemen who strayed into China on September 29 said they had not been mal- treated by their captors although they did not enjoy being kept con- tinuously in a room 12 feet by 9 feet.
They had had to sign a con- fession" that they had assisted in the suppression of Chinese in Hongkong and that they had crossed the border illegally, but both men vehemently repudiated this on their return.
The "deportation" of the five men arrested in connexion with a border kidnapping took place simultaneously with the release of the policemen and the Hongkong Government also re- opened a border road bridge which had been closed in retaliation for violent frontier incidents staged by villagers from China.
Someone to talk to
Although the Hongkong authorities are being exceptionally discreet about today's developments, they admit that these arrangements had been arrived at in exchanges about border matters between responsible officials
++
on
both sides. This means that the Hongkong Government has at last found someone to talk to on the other side of the border-a consider- able improvement on the situation in recent months, when no Chinese official was willing to accept respon- sibility for negotiating.
Hongkong exchange of prisoners
China yesterday released tenegro and a party of 40 or
con-
two Hongkong police stables it had been holding since September in exchange for five Chinese nationals held by the Hongkong authorities.
The two constables had accidentally motor-cycled across the border. The five Chinese relcased included Ju Wong Kwai, described as a ringleader respon- sible for the border scuffles in August.
Yesterday roadblocks were erected in Hongkong after terrorist bob was thrown at a police vehicle and exploded on its roof. No one was hurt in this incident in the New Territories distret, ::: four policemen, including
an inspector, were injured by the explosion of a
3
campers left the island of Hunt duras, ing Cay, owned by British Ilon- after defying British orders for his eviction. Guate- mala claims that British Hon- duras belongs to her.
The fact that China has at last freed the two is taken here as a sign that the Chinese authorities realize the continuing value of a reasonable modus vivendi with Hongkong. The constables' release is particularly significant as a gesture of reasonableness as it follows the devaluation of sterling and the Hong- kong dollar last week, both of which threw China's foreign trade out of gear: a quarter of her exports are sold in the colony, while almost all her foreign contracts are written in sterling.
Internally, Hongkong's own com- munists are taking a very different line. The number of bomb alarms (mainly hoaxes) has risen significantly during the past three days, after a lull. In one incident in a remote part of the colony today four policemen were hurt in an explosion. Later a police vehicle was attacked with a bomb in the same district,
Communists' doubt
The communists say that the latest bombs are in protest at the devalua- tion of the Hongkong dollar. When Hongkong followed Britain in de- valuing by 14.3 per cent terrorism fell away sharply. The extremists concentrated instead on denouncing devaluation as a capitalist plot. When Hongkong revalued by 10 per cent on Thursday the ground was cut from beneath the communists' feet and they were doubly embar- rassed because of the speed with which communist commercial organ- izations had announced substantial price increases, even on pre-devalua- tion stock.
The communists still have not sold how they intend to react to the re- valuation of the Hongkong dollar, and Peking-owned banks state that they must await instructions from China before they can fix a new exchange rate. Hongkong's com- munists seem in doubt as to the correct reaction,
Revaluation has removed one issue on which they could have appealed to the man in the street and the extremists have been forced back to their old tactics of bombs and demonstrations.
continued association with United States, said the United Nations.
DAILY MAIL
The road back
Two
HONGKONG: constables
police who accidentally motor-cycled across the Chinese border two months ago returned in exchange for five Chinese Communist prisoners. .
DAILY SKETCH
HONG KONG
The per- sonal
belongings of Police Inspector Frank Knight, of Dagenham, Essex, who escaped trom Chinese custody a week ago, were handed back at the border.
were
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