TNAG-0111-FCO40-147-Detainees-and-prisoners-following-19671968-disturbances-1969 — Page 39

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could help achieve this. In this connection he was very

pleased with the way the British Press had handled the

news of Mrs. Grey's visit to this Office yesterday.

8

Mr. Bonfield said he was most grateful to Lord Shepherd

for this account of the situation. On the question of what

the Federation could do to help, he assumed, from what

Lord Shepherd had said, that the advice would be to play

down the publicity side of Mr. Grey's detention as much as

possible. Lord Shepherd said that this would be desirable;

and hoped that restraint in publicity could be exercised

especially in the next three or four weeks since this

might well be a critical period.

9. In reply to a question from Mr. Bradley, Lord Shepherd

said that he saw no future in retaliatory action. Some

people had asked that the NCNA members in London should

be arrested. But it was probable that the Chinese would

regard these people as expendable; and if arrests of this

sort were made there was the danger of a more savage

retaliation on Britons elsewhere.

10. Asked whether HMG would accede to Chinese demands if

the price was the release of the eleven journalists,

Lord Shepherd said that this was a hypothetical question.

Obviously one would have to consider all aspects of this.

If we were to accede to the Chinese demands there could be

dangerous repercussions in Hong Kong. Many factors had to

be weighed carefully.

11.

In conclusion, Mr. Bonfield, on behalf of the

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