TNAG-0112-FCO40-148-Detainees-and-prisoners-following-19671968-disturbances-1969 — Page 219

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SECRET

LETTER

His Excellency

Sir David Trench, GCMG.,

MC.,

Government House,

Victoria,

Hong Kong.

I am very grateful for your letter of 23 December in which you review the position on detainees.

twehre

Tour

Since you wrote, eleven releases have been made (including the ten you envisaged in your letter), Ministers have seen your report and agree that, so far as the remaining five detainees are concerned, the policy should be continued of releasing them as soon as possible, having regard to security considerations and to

public opinion in Hong Kong.

In the light of the additional information

provided in your exchange of telegrams with Peking (your telegram No.14 to Peking refers), Ministers have also considered your proposals to release suitable cases under poliœ supervision orders and agree that detainees might at your

discretion be released under these orders in

preference to their continued detention.

We have noted Cradock's suggestion (in his telegram No.12 to you) that supervision orders carry the risk of a Chinese reaction. Indeed,

as he pointed out, the imposition of the order on detainee No.15 has been denounced in your Communist press as "fascist persecution"; but this is making no more than propaganda use of the subject. It is possible that much more might be made of the re-arrest and imprisonment

of a detainee. However, the latter risk seems

a slight one in view of the way in which you intend to operate and enforce such orders, as detailed in your telegram,

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