TNAG-0114-FCO40-150-Detainees-and-prisoners-following-19671968-disturbances-1969 — Page 24

Affair of Anthony Grey,

the Chinese Govern-

ent detained as a reprisal

the imprisonment of aese fournalists in Hong- ng, highlights the situation

the last substantial British-

colony, ironically situated

the land of the world's most mihisnt anti-imperialists.

The wheel has turned full

Passive de.

resistance, once used so effectively against colonialism in India, is now the weapon of the British in Hongkong. Even after only a few days in the colony I began to feel uncomfortably enclosed inside this tiny spot of red

ed" for Empire).

made me uneasy being towered over by the new "Reds," 700,000,000 of them, maybe more. The temperature was up into the nineties, and even apart from politics it was hard to keep cool. And in Hongkong

is of the cool "

essence. Once it is lost, China will certainly reclaim Hong- kong by force. True, the

colony is useful to China, pro- viding her with 50 per cent of her foreign exchange, but these days countries tend to put neional pride before financial gaia.

Siz.nge war

A Brish brigade guards the 17-mile land frontier with the Chinese mainland, and since the serious rioting of 1967 they have fought a strange sort of war against the militants of the cultural revolution. Every day a crocodile o Maoist farm- ers crosses the oorder at Lo Wu to till the 500 acres their collective owns in the colony. They sing improving songs as they march, and at the slightest sign of a provocation they are ready to hurì abuse or stories, or to brandish their agri- cultural weapons.

Wherever possible the Hong- kong border guards turn the other check, resorting only in extrémis to the non-lethal weapons of riot control. A British officer must be a psycho- logist as welt as a soldier. Never must he allow the

$

Cutting dated

THE GUARDIAN M3 OCT 1069

K-271-

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PA on

Red for Empire

NICHOLAS BETHELL visits Hong-

(2817

A.. Canyonara

presences file

half an hour by farmers waving hoes and demanding apologies for the 'provocation" of photographing China. Two years ago, the Chinese border guards might well have inter- vened in their comrader'

kong where 'British soldiers confront support, but on this occasion

Maoism, even violent Maoism, with

sweet reason'

Chinese to lose face because they would then be in honour bound to retaliate massively.

I visited the village of Sha Tau Kok, which is divided Berlin-style, with the frontier running along the middle of a street. A stone's throw from the border (and with good reason) the army mans the British frontier post. Once a week a patrol walks along the British pavement of the street

M

just to show it's still ours," in the words of the lieutenant who commands it.

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When the police approach the border they carry dustbin lid-like shields to ward off the stones, but the army cannot. To do so would be undignified. What do you do if a stone hits you?" I asked a lieutenant. Pretend it didn't." "Suppose someone gets knocked out? "We carry him away-very slowly. That makes an impres- sion, even on them."

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"}

The 48th Gurkha Infantry Brigade has a strange, almost unmilitary function. The

soldiers are under orders to confront Maoism, even violent Maoism, with sweet reason. A British officer described to me how during 1967 his border post was fired on for four hours by Mao's People's Liberation Army. He ordered his men to take cover and do nothing, not even to fire back.

After few minutes it

a became clear that the Chinese soldiers had orders to fire wide of the post, over it and all round it. Remaining in such a position without retaliating demanded a great effort of self-control, but on this occa- sion they managed it and there were no casualties.

During the past year the border situation has not been so tense, and there is evidence that in some cases Chinese soldiers have been restraining the ardour of the trouble- makers. The day I visited Sha Tau Kok there was a minor incident at Lo Wu, where six of my parliamentary colleagues were kept in a police post for

they did not. They remained at their posts and ignored what was happening.

а

In fact, there is evidence that the Hongkong and main- land Communists do not always see their aims as identical. The detention of Anthony Grey may strike us British as barbarous act, but the long- kong Communists would cer- tainly have preferred 2 stronger retaliation from Peking. In spite of reports to the contrary, Peking has not tried to barter the freedom of other British subjects detained in China for that of the Communists still held 11 Hongkong.

A rumour

rumour

Wa

Last week, a floated in the colony that this might happen, but it was pro- bably inspired by emissaries from Peking in an effort to give comfort to their Hong- kong supporters. The Peking position is still that certain British subjects have comunic- ted crimes under Chines. law and have been sentenced for them. They are not no tages, and it is unlikely that the vill be used as such to support Maoism in Hongkong.

China now seems to vant a distinction between her rela- tions with Britain and those with Hongkong. It is a tend-

ency our Foreign Secretary would do well to follow. In Hongkong we negotiate from a position of weakness, everyone knows this and it does not make for a stable relationship. The United Kingdom need not and should not let this weak- ness upset its own slowly with improving relationship China.

This is the first of two articles by Lord Bethell who recently returned from the Far East as d member of a parliamentary delegation

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