TNAG-0216-FCO40-252-Detainees-and-prisoners-convicted-for-offences-during-the-di-1970 — Page 139

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CR 1/2856/69

CONFIDENTIAL

TANG CHUEN

5 February, 1970.

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I am enclosing copies of the post Mortem report on Tang Chuen and of the record taken at the inquest which you asked for in your letter 1/2 of 22 January.

2.

These papers do not provide a suitable follow-up for your Note of 14 January to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There is no doubt that Tang died a natural death and that he was adequately cared for in his illness, but the post mortem report shows clear indications of infective hepatitis as well as of cirrhosis of the liver. As you will see, the record of the inquest could be selectively drawn on to show that Tang had infective hepatitis, that a witness gave the usual causes of the disease as contaminated food or improperly sterilised syringes and that Tang had been inoculated against Cholera within the normal incubation period for infective hepatitis. (The report uses the word "infectious" instead of the correct "infective" throughout.) These were arguments with which the Hong Kong communist press supported their charges of neglect and maltreatment. We should not wish to risk seeing it resurrected at some time in the future on the basis of selections from a record made officially available to the Chinese Government. The record has had no other circulation as Tang's family did not ask for a copy of the proceedings after the inquest.

3.

It does not seem worth prompting a revival of interest in the case or providing material which might be used against us later in the context of the remaining 1967 prisoners by handing the record of the inquest to the Chinese. If possible it might be best to let matters rest with your note of 14 January. But if you consider it necessary to put in a further note on Tang there might be no harm in stating in general terms that the inquest proved that he had good medical attention and was well cared for in his last illness and that his death was found to be due to cirrhosis of the liver with gastro-intestinal bleeding. You might even be able to find a few other harmless details to give an appearance of truth to an otherwise bald account.

4.

I am sending a copy of this letter to James Murray in Far Eastern Department.

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(A.F. Maddocks)

J.B. Denson, Esq., OBE, British Charge d'Affaires, PEKING.

Encl.

CONFIDENTIAL