TNAG-0216-FCO40-252-Detainees-and-prisoners-convicted-for-offences-during-the-di-1970 — Page 129

If course (i) above were adopted how would the Board of Review react? if they recommended no remissions what would be the consequences if the Governor, with or without other

advice, overruled them?

(iv) If course (ii) above were adopted how would the Board of Review react if their advice were cast aside by the

Governor?

An Amnesty

11.

The declaration of an amnesty in respect of prisoners convicted of violence or of the possession of offensive weapons or explosives would be likely to create even more difficulties. Much would depend on the circumstancesof each individual case. It is just possible that the early release of some of these prisoners might be accepted in some non-communist quarters in Hong Kong as a reasonable gesture towards communist China, but there would undoubtedly be repercussions on behalf of other prisoners not convicted as a result of offences directly connected with confrontation, and there would almost certainly be repercussions in other directions as well. Whatever the reaction in Hong Kong, with no guarantee that the amnesty would lead to the release of any British subjects held in China, it would be most difficult to defend such a course in Parliament. A dangerous precedent would have been created, whether or not the amnesty produced the release of any British subjects in China, and we would have much less roca for manoeuvre in any similar situation that might arise in the fature (disturbances followed by arrests, convictions and long- term sentences).

Hong Kong Department

24 March, 1970