TNAG-0110-FCO40-146-Detainees-and-prisoners-following-19671968-disturbances-1968 — Page 29

In a letter to the Me John Rear, lecturer

-

1A

nes published on 11 November, 1968,

aw at Hong Kong University, accused the Government of hypocrisy in its statements on the Grey case and drew attention to the circumstances in which Chinese axe being detained in Hong Kong. Since the publication of Mr Rear's letter and the publication of a critical statement by the Hong Kong Bar Association, a number of Chinese have been released from detention and imprisonment, including Mr Hsueh Ping, to whom the Foreign Secretary alluded and Mr Tang Ping-ta, Honorary Treasurer of the Hongkong Chinese Chamber of Commerce who had been in detention for sixteen months.

The Press Group have decided to make available to readers of "China in the News" the various items

letters, statements and features which have been touched off by Mr Rear's letter or serve to explain the background to it. It will be clear from the incidental comments that many of these items are taken from anti-Chinese, anti-communist periodicals.

Since appeals are being made to the "rights" of British in China; to the "rule of law" and international standards of conduct, it is worthwhile recalling that less than thirty years ago certainly within the memory of millions of Chinese

the British in Shanghai and other concessions were a law unto themselves within the Chinese state:

"The nationals and firms of those powers were exempt from jurisdiction by Chinese courts in criminal cases, being subject instead to consular courts which also heard some civil suits. Their houses, ships and other property could not be entered or searched by the Chinese police or other authorities. Even their Chinese servants could not be arrested without the consent of the foreign consular authority

("Britain and China" - Evan Luard, p.50)

The rights of the Chinese within the British concessions were epitomised in the notice at the entrance to the Shanghai Racecourse, "Dogs and Chinese Not Admitted". In the letter from Mr I.P. Wu, reproduced on page 18 it is suggested that, so far as the Hong Kong authorities are concerned, these attitudes have not materially changed..

Whilst the British press is focussing attention on the case of Mr Grey and other British nationals detained in China, the Chinese will see the "totalitarian" rule in Hong Kong as the cardinal question and as a reminder that a "colonial" attitude to the Chinese did not end with the cessation of extra-territorial rights in 1942. For the state of affairs in Hong Kong the British Government must accept responsibility.