kept/
40
Finally, however, he wished to thank NCNA for the help
and co-operation which they had given, especially Mr Tan, in the attempts. made to resolve the problem quickly and to prevent it becoming even more serious.
5.
LA TAMBJEN 10
Mr Li said the NCNA were grateful that the incident had been brought to their attention so early. They had been told during the night. Such accidents were unfortunate but sometimes happened. The fact that this particular incident occurred at night meant that the authorities in Canton did not know of it at the time. It was helpful that the NCNA had been/informed closely of developments and the comments of the Hong Kong authorities. These had been passed to Canton with the NCNA's own comments.
6.
The general approach of the authorities in Canton was to emphasise that, when problems arose, they should be solved in a friendly and co-operative spirit. On this occasion this was not done too well on the Chinese side. As Dr Wilson had said, both sides were engaged in tackling the same problem. There might have been a language problem when the incident occurred. He was unsure how many Chinese crew were on the hovercraft and he believed a language barrier might have contributed to misunderstandings. However, the security personnel on the Chinese side might have been a bit too anxious to settle the problem.
7.
Mr Li added that it was his personal view that the incident in September in Mirs Bay could possibly have influenced behaviour on this occasion. In that incident, a Hong Kong police launch had collided with a speed boat and a security guard had drowned. After the collision the police launch had left and had only made efforts to save the man after protests had been made by the Chinese side at the scene. Security personnel on the Chinese side might have been concerned that the same would happen in this case and therefore wished to insist on an exchange of statements so that there would be an exact record of when the collision occurred and the extent of damage on each side. However, the negotiations did not go smoothly. Dr Wilson said that, to his knowledge, there had been no suggestion of statements being exchanged until after a Hong Kong police officer went on board a Chinese patrol boat at about 0630 hours. Mr Li said that there perhaps had been some argument at the time of he incident on which party was to blame. This may have lasted for sometime and the security personnel therefore went on board the hovercraft to have negotiations and to make a record of the damage to the ships involved. In the end statements were exchanged, There were misunderstandings at the time. He added that the hovercraft moved fast and weather conditions were bad. In their approach to the incident the Public Security Bureau in Canton and Dr Wilson took the same approach.
8
Dr Wilson thanked Mr Li for his helpful comments. On the Hong Kong side, we also believed that such problems should be solved in a friendly and co-operative way. Ways must be found of tackling any incidents which occurred and these must avoid the use of force or boarding parties.
CONFIDENTIAL
3/8.
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