TNAG-0114-FCO40-150-Detainees-and-prisoners-following-19671968-disturbances-1969 — Page 62

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attempting to force further concessions before releasing

7

Mr. Grey. But acknowledged that Wong Chak presented a

snag in that the remission of his sentence risked making a

nonsense of the areful explanation given to the Hong Kong

public that its eduction by the Review Board in May from

5 years to 3 yea: s resulted from normal review processes

connected with the Grey case. I foresaw

and was in no va

that if ten only were released, and this was not judged

sufficient by th

Chineso, we should face a trying time until

the release of W ng Chak on 3 October.

5. In my submi sion of 18 June (paragraph 8 (a)) I argued

that while our d ́al with the Russians over lir. Brooke was

unlikely to affect the Chinese handling of the Grey case, it

might well lead to further pressure by them in the matter of

the whole proble of convicted "confrontation" prisoners in

Hong Kong and possibly even to attempts to strike bargains

over other Briti ih subjects now in detention in China.

6. This last a 'gument was also put forward with rather more

force by Mr. Den ion in his letter of 15 July. In this he

expressed the view that as a result of the Brooke case the

Chinese might be encouraged, after Mr. Grey's release, to`

take en entirely unyielding line on the other British subjects

in detention in Jhina in the hope of extracting further

concessions in Ing Kong which it would presumably become

increasingly difficult to make;

if however there were to be

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