TNAG-0113-FCO40-149-Detainees-and-prisoners-following-19671968-disturbances-1969 — Page 155

CONFIDENTIAL

RECOMMENDATION

3.

I recommend that I be authorised to inform Mr. Long

that for the present we think that we must continue to stand

firm in Hong Kong; but we fully sympathise with his desire

to shorten Mr. Grey's ordeal, and if nearer September it seems

that the prisoners could be prematurely released in Hong Kong,

without serious consequences for Hong Kong in the short or

long term, we shall certainly consider this.

ARGUMENT

4. We have hitherto seen three dangers in the premature

release of convicted prisoners in Hong Kong:-

(a)

We believe that it would damage public confidence

in the Colony. It might also be interpreted by

the Communists as the'kow tow'which the Chinese

have been seeking. We should thus be tacitly

acknowledging their ability to influence events in

the Colony at their whim. Mr. Long has argued

that the release of the newsworkers could equally be

presented as an act of strength demonstrating that

the Governor, successful in his "confrontation"

policy, had sufficient confidence in the security

situation to regard the risks of release as negligible.

But it is not so much the immediate security situation

that concerns the Governor as long-term confidence.

Any action which might lead the inhabitants of Hong

Kong to conclude that we have lost cur nerve could

quickly be disastrous. We cannot afford to

CONFIDENTIAL

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