TNAG-0114-FCO40-150-Detainees-and-prisoners-following-19671968-disturbances-1969 — Page 42

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and our Mission in Peking a year ago. This debate was reviewed in my submission of 20 August, 1968. Sir D. Hopson urged an active policy of conciliation maintaining that until we had cleared away the débris of "confrontation", notably by the release of communists convicted for their part in the disorders, we could not hope to return to "pre-confrontation co-existence". The Governor argued, then as now, that concessions were more likely to encourage the belief in our susceptibility to pressure than to stimulate genuine recipro- city; and that a policy of firmness had justified itself by results. However, in telegram No. 855 of 5 July, 1968, (worth re-reading) about schools in particular, he acknowledged that a policy of firmness required the avoidence of excessive provocation and fine judgements to maintain the correct balance. ARGUMENT

4. The Chinese Chargé d'Affaires' remarks on the prisoners in Hong Kong arose incidentally in the course of general discussion and he did not labour the point unduly. In the course of a similar discussion in Peking on 24 July Chinese officials avoided mention of the subject (Peking telegram No. 429).

Nevertheless, it is clear that we are going to hear more about the future of the remaining confrontation prisoners once, as we hope, the Grey affair has been settled in October. This is hardly unexpected. There remain wel1

over 200 such persons in jail in Hong Kong and it was hardly to be expected that the communists would simply let the

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