TNAG-0335-FCO40-371-Visits-of-Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-Af-1972 — Page 114

NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN

CONFIDENTIAL

Set out in more detail in

Supplementary Bruf

no.

when referring to these matters, that we would be

interested in negotiating & Consular Convention

with the Chinese. This matter has already been

mentioned to the Chinese Foreign Ministry by our

Embassy.]

11.

The Chinese will in tur no doubt refer to the

question of "confrontation prisoners" in Hong Kong,

Of the 1832 offenders convicted in 1967 only 11 nov

remain and most of these will have been released

by mid-1973.

The Secretary of State will not wish

to be drawn into detailed discussion of this

subject. If pressed he might say that releases

are continuing and that the proportions of the

problem are now very small. In the unlikely event

of the Chinese broaching the possibility of the

eventual "release to China" of the remaining

prisoners, the Secretary of State will wish to

take note and to undertake to give the proposal

careful consideration.

12. The Chinese may also refer to their wish to

demolish and rebuild part of their Embassy premises

at 49/51 Portland Place (a building scheduled as

being of architectural importance) and to delays

in processing their application. The Chinese

Embassy have provided virtually no information to

the local planning authorities. If the matter is

raised the Secretary of State will wish to emphasise

that we are anxious to help but that we cannot

override the local authorities.

Conservation and

environmental matters arouse much public interest.

/The matter