TNAG-0111-FCO40-147-Detainees-and-prisoners-following-19671968-disturbances-1969 — Page 159

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N.C.N.A. report would seem to indicate that there is little

prospect of his early release.

In their present mood it seems

unlikely that the release of the remaining detainees or anything

short of the release of all twelve news workers would satisfy

the Chinese. The readiest deduction is that they intend to

hang on to Mr. Grey in the hope that pressure will mount for

us to make concessions. The assessment of Chinese intentions,

based on both overt and covert indications, which the Governor

of Hong Kong has promised for about 13 January may help us

towards a firm judgement.

9.

Meanwhile, the Governor of Hong Kong has made his

contribution to "de-escalation" by his decision to speed up

the rate of release of detainees: he forecasts that by the

end of this week there will be only six in detention.

Publicity

of Reuters

10. I discussed the publicity aspects fully with Mr. Long/on

20 December. He said that he accepted our thesis that we

should now as far as possible restrain publicity about Mr. Grey

in the belief that the Chinese would be more likely to release

him when not evidently under pressure. He said that Reuters

did not intend to take any new initiative for further publicity

but he stressed that neither Reuters nor ourselves had now much

control over the publicity aspect. I have kept in touch with

Mr. Long since. He now tells me that his own journalists in

the Reuters branch of the National Union of Journalists are

pressing for a meeting which might result in a resolution

6.

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