TNAG-0109-FCO40-145-Detainees-and-prisoners-following-19671968-disturbances-1968 — Page 131

Mr. Moreton

Plagi

2.

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CONFIDENTIAL

1. Carter

Mr. Anthony Grey of Reuters

I

The Secretary of State has agreed to see Kr. Gerald Long,

General Manager of Reuters, at 4.51 p.m. on 6 November.

attach talking points.

Er. Long wrote to the Secretary of State on 23 July

asking that consideration be given to an act of clemency under

which Chinese newspaper workers imprisoned in Rong Kong would

be released, in the hope that this would secure the release

of Hr. Grey, the Reuters correspondent who has been under house

arrest in Peking since July 1967. The Secretary of State sent

an interim reply promising to go into the matter with the

Commonwealth Secretary, but underlining that Mr. Long's request

raised far-reaching and delicate questions involving the

maintenance of our authority in the Colony. Since then the

Private Secretary, Far Eastern Department and News Department

have kept Mr. Long regularly in touch with developments.

Head of Far Eastern Department saw Mr. Long on 17 October and

gave him a fairly detailed account (omitting names) of the

covert probe of Chinese intentions recently conducted in Hong

Kong.

Reuters are therefore aware of general developments;

It is important that we have their full co-operation in the

delicate stages in the handling of the Grey case which may

The

lie ahead.

Argument

CONFIDENTIAL