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o HELD IN PEKING
From Mr John Rear
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Sir.-On October 30, during a private visit to Hongkong, Mr. Percy Cradock, the Acting British Chargé d'Affaires in Peking, complained at a press conference of the Chinese Government's extraordinary statement that the British Government is well aware of why Mr. Grey (Reuter's Peking Correspondent) has been treated the way he has". It was extraordinary, he said, because Mr. Anthony Grey has not been treated according to the normal standards of behaviour", for he had not been sentenced in any court or accused of any crime: he had simply been held.
I venture to suggest that this is pure hypocrisy. The British Government is well aware that here in Hongkong some 30 to 40 local Chinese communists are still in de- tention following their arrest last year during the disturbances. They have neither been sentenced in any court nor publicly accused of any crime; like Mr. Grey, they have simply been held.
On the other hand, you, sir, may not be aware that emergency regulations in force in this colony at the present time empower. Hongkong's Colonial Secretary to direct any person he names to be detained, without trial, for up to one year. He need give no reason for ordering a particular person's detention; indeed, the law does not require him even to have a reason. There is nothing to prevent rearrest and further detention at the end of one year and this is known to have happened in some cases. The names of detainees have never been pub- lished. A number of those arrested got the traditional knock on the door in the early
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hours of the morning. It was recently an- nounced that the release of those detained and the repeal of the emergency laws must wait until circumstances permit, yet the dis-, turbances ceased in December of last year.
When we make it so clear that when the chips are down we care just as little for the rule of law as the next man, but simply talk about it more, it is not hard to under- stand why the Chinese People's Republic regards the British Government's moraliz- ing with contempt and continues to detain Mr. Grey.
Yours faithfully.
JOHN REAR. University of Hong Kong, Hongkong, Nov. 2.
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