TNAG-0111-FCO40-147-Detainees-and-prisoners-following-19671968-disturbances-1969 — Page 156

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recent statements made in the House by the Prime Minister and

the Secretary of State on Mr. Grey and accused H.M.G. of

deliberately stimulating "an anti-China outcry on the Grey

question", and asserted that "the British Government will

absolutely achieve nothing in its effort to force the Chinese

Government to change its just stand. This unreasonable action.

does not help to solve the question but only makes it more

complicated".

4. The N.C.N.A. statement follows closely the arguments used

in the Hong Kong press during the last month and was published

in the People's Daily alongside a report of a press conference

given by the Hong Kong editor of the Ta Kung Po on 20 December

at which he made three demands on the Hong Kong Government,

"immediate cessation of all beatings and maltreatments of the

imprisoned patriotic Chinese, immediate abrogation of the

so-called "emergency regulations" of the Hong Kong British

authorities, and immediate release of all the patriotic Chinese

now illegally detained in the prisons and the concentration camp".

5. This is the first occasion on which the Chinese authorities

in an official statement have linked the detention of Mr. Grey

with that of the thirteen news workers in Hong Kong (now reduced

to twelve following the release on 20 December of one prisoner).

In so doing the Chinese have come close to naming their price

for Mr. Grey. On the other hand a close examination of the

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