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in this matter. Mr. Aichi said that he would
like to continue to exchange information and
ideas on this question. 1. Stewart welcomed
this suggestion, while regretting that we had
not more ideas to offer. We had considered
various possible courses of action including
taking retaliatory measures against the
Chinese here but we had concluded that this
would merely make matters worse.
10. The problem of the British subjects
detained in China was complicated by the special
position of Hong Kong. In order to preserve
order in Hong Kong it had been necessary to
impose prison sentences on certain Chinese
journalists who had committed crimes. The
Chinese regarded one of the British subjects
Gray as a hostage for these; they might
release Gray if we released the journalists in
Hong Kong. Our dilemma was that to do this
might create a situation in Hong Kong in which
we might not be able to enforce the law. Since
1967 we had succeeded in keeping order in Hong
Kong. We intended to continue our diplomatic
Fо дома Солить
representatiors in the hope that they would
achieve results with time.
HONG KONG
11.
Mr. Stewart said that since 1967 life in
Hong Kong had become more normal, as also had
relations with China. The Chinese government
complained when Chinese journalists in Hong
Kong broke the law and were imprisoned.
But
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