TNAG-0112-FCO40-148-Detainees-and-prisoners-following-19671968-disturbances-1969 — Page 56

WIB'L 51-74 33

NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN

Registry No.

HKK 1/12

DRAFT

LETTER

To:-

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION/

Top Secret. Secret. Confidential. Restricted. Unclassified.

PRIVACY MARKING

In Confidence

A. S. Newens, Esq., MP.

7 House of Commons,

?

C

S.W.1.

Type 1 +

From

98

Lord Shepherd

Telephone No. & Ext.

Department

176

Since the affairs of Hong Kong fall

within my purview, Bill Whitlock has passed on

to me your letter to him of 30th January, 1969,

تایی معایی

on the subject of the imprisonment of children

in Hong Kong as a result of their participation

in the disturbances which occurred in the

Colony during 1967.

g too am very concerned

My own first reaction to learning that

Sharlil

be

there were still young persons in prison as a

result of the disturbances, was very similar to

But I must point out

your-owIT.

However, I am afraid that the

tenderness of their ages was not matched by

(did not match their tender years the behaviour of these young offenders as you

will see from the following details of the

cases of each of the five persons concerned:

(1) on the 20th September, 1967, a

fourteen year old boy placed a

travelling bag containing a real bomb

in a road. He was charged with the

possession of an offensive weapon and

sentenced to four years imprisonment;

(2) on the 10th October, 1967, a

fourteen year old boy placed two bombs

under the Chatham Road flyover in

Kowloon. Both bombs were exploded by a

ballistics team, one being real and the

other a simulated bomb. He was charged

with possession of an offensive weapon