TNAG-2186-FCO40-3123-Ethnic-minorities-in-Hong-Kong-1990 — Page 14

CODE 18-77

HKD 340/2

RECEIVED

12 DEC 1990

DESKU FICE..

INDEX

PA

Mr Sainty

HKD

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Reference

From:

R Wye

340/2

96.

196

Far Eastern Section Research Department ОАВ 2/124

210-6219

Date:

27 February 1990

TREATMENT OF EURASIANS IN CHINA

1. We spoke. I have been in touch with Miss Nettleton (ECDE, 270-3361) who was until recently HM Vice-Consul in Peking. There was a Chinese lady holding a British passport called Dorothy Farmer who lived in Yingkou, Liaoning province. She was in receipt of a pension being paid by the Embassy in Peking, and was still alive when Miss Nettleton was in China Miss Nettleton was never although she was very old and ill. able to visit her, so cannot provide any background on her experiences in China. According to Miss Nettleton Dorothy Farmer's brother, Percy Farmer, left China for Hong Kong some time in the 1960s (possibly before the Cultural Revolution). He had been imprisoned in China, though she cannot remember why. There is a file on Mr Farmer in the Embassy with some Hong Kong press cuttings of the period.

2. Percy Farmer was younger than Dorothy. He may well still be alive and living in Hong Kong and probably the source for the allusion in the letter you received.

3.

We have nothing in our files on the Farmer case, though there might be something on the external papers held by RD. I do not propose to seek LRD's help unless you specifically request.

4. It is my impression that Eurasians in China have nct generally been subject to persecution or harassment simply because of their heredity. Indeed in some cases, the fact that there was an obvious foreign connection may have stayed the authorities' hand somewhat in their treatment of individuals. The classic case is perhaps that of Bao Run-wang (aka Jean Pasqualini) who attributed his survival and certainly his release from a Chinese gaol in 1964 to the fact of his French citizenship.

5.

This is not to deny that many Chinese with foreign connections, be it of blood or by other means, have been subject to persecution or harassment by the Chinese authorities on numerous occasions. The most sustained period of persecution for many Chinese was the Cultural Revolution. But this was a time of widespread suffering throughout China,

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