CAB148-30-Defence and Oversea Policy Committee Meetings Relating to 1967 Disturbances-1967 — Page 263

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The Committee considered a memorandum by the Secretary of State for

Foreign Affairs (OPD (67) 67) on the nature of United Kingdom relations with

China in the light of recent anti-British activities in China and Hong Kong.

THE FOREIGN SECRETARY said that it was still impossible to diagnose the

situation in China with accuracy or to predict how it would develop. The

immediate problem was to evacuate women and children from the Office of the

British Charge d'Affaires in Peking and gradually to replace the present

staff of the Mission. To break relations with China would not help to

extricate our staff and their dependants and, if conditions in China became

somewhat more normal, it would in any case be useful to have our representatives

in Peking, even though the importance of maintaining a Mission was not

substantial in the contexts of our trade with China or the protection of

British subjects. He had sent a letter in relatively friendly terms to the

Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs and we had enlisted the aid of the

President of Pakistan in seeking the evacuation of our present staff and

their dependants. At present the situation seemed a little calmer. The

British Charge d'Affaires had been received by an official of the Ministry of

Foreign Affairs in Peking, but the latter's reaction to the suggestion that

women and children should be allowed to leave had not been very favourable:

ho had reverted again to British behaviour in Hong Kong. The Foreign Office was examining, in conjunction with the Treasury, Board of Trade and Department of Economic Affairs, what financial and economic pressures could

be exerted on China in cases of need, and the results of these deliberations

would be put to the Committee in due course. For the present we should not

take the initiative in breaking off diplomatic relations, we should take the

consequential action recommended in his memorandum and we should again vote

for the admission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations,

while taking no action to promote it.

In discussion, some doubt was expressed about the possibility of

reconciling the need to take firm measures in Hong Kong with the undesirability of taking any action which might provoke reprisals against the Office of the British Charge d'Affaires in Peking and it was urged that the former should where necessary prevail. The general view however was that

the attempt should be made to hold the balance between these two factors and to keep the situation as calm as possible, though it was essential that we

should take such action as was required to maintain full control in Hong Hong.

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