TNAG-0216-FCO40-252-Detainees-and-prisoners-convicted-for-offences-during-the-di-1970 — Page 91

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10611/28

Reference...........

NP//3.

Mr. C. Wilson,

Far Eastern Department

I am in general agreement with paragraphs 1-7 of your minute but have reservations on your view that we could without weakening confidence in Hong Kong do more in the way of premature release of confronta- tion prisoners. On this matter, my department will once more study the possibilities, taking up the points in paragraph 8(c) of your minute, and will comment separately.

2.

I agree with Mr. Appleyard on the question of releasing prisoners to China. For us to take the initiative in raising this again would, I feel sure, greatly exacerbate relations. Just conceivably it may be worth mentioning to them again if, as you suggest in paragraph 8(a) of your minute, the, Chinese themselves give us the opportunity to do so./3. I consider that the Governor is fully aware of the need for caution and restraint in handling the local communists, and I would dispute that he showed no recognition of this in our discussions in November, as Mr. Denson would seem to suggest. The question of asking him to give an undertaking in these terms did not (and I hope will never) arise. Successive Governors have become skilled at treading the narrow path between firmness and avoidance of provocation, and I do not think that Sir David Trench is any less skilful or less discerning in plotting the right course. Difficulties arise because there must inevitably be differences of opinion as to where that course lies. Governors have tended (though not always) to veer towards firmness, with their gaze concentrated primarily on the problems of local administration. Our representatives in Peking, naturally preoccupied with the study of Sino/British relations, are more Some concerned to avoid provocation and indeed to see more positive advance in our relations with China. Generally our role has been to reconcile and resolve differing views; on occasions, however, we have found ourselves holding quite distinct opinions of our own. It has been a role which, I suggest, Far Eastern and Hong Kong Departments have in concert played with some skill over the years, given the various personalities involved. Mr. Denson has himself, of course, been one of the dramatis personae at this end. Therefore we must in the forthcoming discussions with him pay particular attention to his evident sense of frustration as it emerges from this correspondence.

brare

2 March, 1970

(W. S. Carter)

Hong Kong Department

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