NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN. IN THIS MARGIN
Registry No
DEPARTMENT
Private
Private Office
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
со
Affine loved
PRIORITY MARKINGS (Date)
Immediate
Confidential
Razerland
Thonly
Beutica
PRIVACY MARKING
In Confidence
En Clair. Code Cypher
Draft Telegram to:-
HONG KONG
1507
}
* Date and time (G.M.T.) telegram should
watch addressee(s)
Despatched
21 July 1967
23592
لاماك
CYPHER
[ Security classificabian
-if any
[ Privacy marking
-if any
[Codeword-if any).........
CONTIDENTIAL
]
PERSONAL
Addressed to
telegram No.
1507
No.....
And to
(Date) 21/7/67.
repeated for information to
And to:-
Saving to...
ויז!
Acting Governor HONG KONG
(date)
..י
MILJ
---
Repeat to:-
FOLLOWING PERSONAL FOR GASS FROM SECRETARY
OF STATE:
+
[T
TAKE IN A TO B ON ATTACHED,
].
Saving to:-
M
Distribution:-
(25
PRISEC (CO)
Copies to:-
J. Planter
24/7
J
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Mr Forster
81r A. Galsworthy has discussed with
Mro Hart and the P.U.3. the question
of a personal message from the Secretary of State to Mr Gass in Hong
Kong.
They have agreed the folloring
text and if the Secretary of State "greos
they hope that it might issue this evening:
"Para nol for Gass from the Secretary of
State
A
Begins.
We have been most grateful for your
informative and up-to-the-minute accounts
of how confrontation has been developing
and your very clear analyses of the
situation and of the measures needed to
cope with it. They give us all here a very
real feel of the situation, and a sense
of participating and sharing with you and
your advisers.
I would like you to know how much
we admire the cool headed and courteous
( And all
your team)
way you IXXXİKKI personally re
are
handling the situation. Please accept
ny congratulations and thanks.
Best Wishes
B
ENDS.
A hit
(A.. Drury)
21/7/67
348/
***
Hong Kong Squeeze
Mao's minions in the British colony of Hong Kong have upped the ante,
moving from riots to strikes to terrorism. Meanwhile, Chinese in neigh-
boring Kwantung have made mob Incursions into one section of the colony
and have fired across the border, killing five policemen. Britain's
earlier hope that its Armness would give the Maolsts pause 1s dining.
There is no longer the same confident expectation that Hong Kong's
hard-cash value to China (soine $500 million a year in for-
eign exchange) will dampen Peking's desire to squeeze the British out.
The stop-and-go character of Communist pres- sure suggests an element of
calculation. So does Peking's care to attribute the border shootings to
its "frontier guards," rather than to its army. But the purpose of the
calculation is unvoiced- perhaps even undecided. China says it wants the
British to kowtow but it has not said what it will do if they don't, or
even if they do. Whatever the Communist purpose, it is likely to be
implemented by degrees of harassment, such as reducing the water supply
from the mainland, rather than by outright ultimatum. This would
complicate Brit- ain's already difficult decision on how to respond.
So far the British have called out the police, and now their troops, to
keep order, but it is obvious they lack the financial, military and po-
litical wherewithal to stay in Hong Kong on their own if the Chinese
determine to eust them. That would pose the question of American
support.
Certain things can be said about that now. Un- ke the major American
position in the Far East. which is the consequence of post World War 11
strategic considerations, the shrunken British pa- sition is a
commercial-imperial carryover from the 19th Century. The practical
difference is that the British have-at this late point-only proft and
pride to lose, not power and prestige. And profit and pride are more
dispensable.
Physically, Hong Kong is so vulnerable as to have little strategic value
for the United States. · Politically, it is vulnerable because it is
unques tionably Chinese; Britain is there by virtue of a lease pressed
on a suppine China in an age past. "Ah American decision on backing the
British would have to hinge on whether London felt there were valid
reasons of high strategy for a joint British-American presence in the
Far East. Such a presence would have to cover not Hong Kong alone but
Vietnam and the region as a whole.
(10822)
CONFIDENTIAL
RECEIVED IN ARCHIVES No.31
20 JUL 1967
a.
сорт
TO 114 23 Kuw
BRITISH EMBASSY
WASHINGTON, D..
Delis Deum
18 July, 1967
sh'll go
6 To Cale (Ca). Low
t
205/4/
Jean Bollerw
Hong Kong : American Opinion
You should see the enclosed editorial comment from the Washington Post
of 14 July about our position in Hong Kong.
2. I do not know whether it will come across to you in the same way, but
the feeling I get, quite strongly, is that the arguments in the earlier
part of this commentary (some of which are perverse, and not the sort of
analysis current among those who follow the so matters in Washington)
have been devised to serve as a load in to the "message" in the latter
part.
And I am bound to add that I think the drift of this latter part,
illogical and unwelcome as it may be, would dominate public opinion in
the circumstances envisaged, and that the Administration, whatever they
might themselves wish to do, would have to take account of this.
3.
Otherwise the raporting of events in Hong Kong has been accurate, if
sometimes excited, here, and the Hong Kong Goverment have had a good
pros5. Indeed, I have noticed only one other unhelpful piece, a rather
malicious N.B.C. television commentary by a correspondent whose "news"
had nothing to do with current events but was simply that he had
discovered no civil or military official in Hong Kong who believed that,
if the Chinese mounted a serious con- frontation, we would stand up to
it.
4. I am sending copies of this letter to Wilford in Hong Kong and
Whitney in Paking.
Yous
2011
Brün Gilma
(B. T. Gilmore)
E. Bolland, Esq.,
Far Eastern Department,
FOREIGN OFFICE.
CONFIDENTI AL
RECEIVED IN
ARCHIVES No. 63
25 JUL1967
HWA '//
リンク
18.
CONFIDENTIAL
FD:/4.
67
2, 7.
7.67
328
N.. Camard W.S. CARTER, Esq,,
Rr. 342,
Church Hote..
With the compliments of
THE FAR EASTERN DEPARTMENT
Foreign Office,S.W.1.
My Jucy,1967.
CONFIDENTIAL
CONFIDENTIAL
INWARD TELEGRAM
TO THE COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
FROM HONG KONG (0.A.0.)
Cypher
D. 24 July 1967 R. 24
091 22
re
349
t.
1
IMMEDIATE
CONFIDENTIAL
No.1100 topy ros nieICS TION
Addressed to Peking No.438 (S. of S. please pass)
and Commonwealth office.
(945)
My telegram No.1090 to Commonwealth Office.
Hsueh Ping and 2 N.C.N.A. reporters on remand.
N.C.N.A. have applied for permission to visit Hsueh and others.
Situation is that Commissioner for Prisons may permit one visit a month
to prisoners under sentence and two per week to those on remand.
Situation will be explained to Ñ.C.N.A. accordingly.
(Passed as requested)
Distribution H.K. W.I.D. 'C'
-
- I.G.D.
DEPARTMENTAL DISTRIBUTION
Copies also sent to:
Foreign Office
tt
11
rt
-
F.E.D.
News Dept.
- J.I.P.G.D.
- J.I.R.D.
CONFIDENTIAL
HUD1/17
RIF.
345
PAR
REF.
150
RESTRICTED
Cypher/Cat A and by Bag.
FOREIGN OFFICE TO BONN
Telno 2052 25 July, 1967 (F)
RESTRICTED
Addressed to Bonn telegram No. 2052 of 25 July Repeated for information
to: Hong Kong
and Saving to: Stuttgart
(338)
Your telegram No. 1078:
[Hong Kong]
You should, as necessary, draw on my Guidance Nos. 189 and 190 to
refute such allegations.
SOSFA
Sent 0746Z 26 July, 1967
DEPARTMENTAL DISTRIBUTION
F.O. F.E.D.
Western Dept
J.I.R.D.
C.O. D.T.D.
!
bbbbb
938
RESTRICTED
RECEIVED IN
ARCHIVES No. 63
26 JUL1967
HUP 1/17
рав
SENT TO HONG KONG AS COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (D.T.D.) TELEGRAM NO.1534
3.5%
En Clair
HANOI TO FOREIGN OFFICE
Telno 497 25 July 1967
UNCLASSIFIED
Addressed to Foreign Office telegram No. 497 of 25 July Repeated for
information to Hong Kong, Saigon, Peking
'People's Daily' article of 24 July protested against arrest of 5
Chinese journalists in Hong Kong on 15 July and supported statement
issued by All-China Journalists Association of 16 July.
Mr. Colvin
Sent 08112 25 July 1967
Recd 0957Z
25 July 1967
FO/CO/WH DISTRIBUTION
F.E.D.
•
VID IN
LAST
REF.
MIX7
#L
водо
Cypher
اشان
CONFIDENTIAL
LA RECIPINATION
INWARD TELEGRAM
TO THE COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
(The Secretary of State)
FROM HONG KONG (0.A.G.)
D. 25 July 1967
R. 25
1000Z
IMMEDIATE
CONFIDENTIAL
No.1109
Addressed to
Commonwealth Office
Repeated to:
552
'VL
1967
121/1
1
•
Peking No.447
POLAD Singapore No.266
Washington No.238
Canberra No.67
(Please pass PRIORITY to all)
Sitrep as at 25 1600.
The Colony has remained generally quiet although sporadic bomb and
incendiary attacks have occurred. On the border stone throwing at
police, immigration officials and troops has continued despite
intervention from time to time by C.C.A. guards. Police raids on
Communist premises have recovered more documents anā improvised arms and
a number of people have been arrested including one senior Communist
official. The Seamen's Union strike has still not had any significant
effect on shipping (my telegram No.1105 refers). There are reports that
there is to be another payment from Communist funds to those dismissed
after recent strikes. There has been no rail traffic from Canton to Shun
Chun since 23 July. (My telegram No.1107 refers.)
2. There have been two or three bombing attacks a day for the last four
days, none causing any casualties or major damage. Police stations and
army married quarters and billets have been the main targets, though
there have been two explosions, one in a lavatory and another at the
entrance to a subway, which could have
Two bomb throwers have been designed to cause civilian casualties. been
injured and arrested. Incendiary attacks, sometimes with home made
bombs, have continued with slightly more success, the main targets being
taxis and buses.
3. Storing of Security Forces on the border both by children and adults
who advance into British territory for the purpose, has continued.
C.C.A. guards on at least two occasions have ordered the demonstrators
away, but the possibility of an incident, which could have
repercussions, increases as the Chinese become more arrogant and our
forces more irritated.
4. Police raids have continued without resistance but with decreasing
dividends. However, one prominent Communist leader has been arrested and
also one trouble maker from Kowloon City who jumped his bail in early
May. Improvised weapons and gas masks in considerable numbers have been
recovered as well as a great deal of propaganda material and some
documents. A school raided ox. 24 July produced the largest single haul
of subversive leaflets etc. and had obviously been used as a
distribution y sins, RECEIVED IN
/have
ARCHES No. 62
2 JUL.J5/
J
CONFIDENTIAL
опад
in
MWAI/N
Police
CONFIDENTIAL
have also removed or obliterated inflammatory propaganda on Communist
buildings in some cases painting over windows where there are illegal
displays.
5. There are reports that union members who have been discharged for
industrial misconduct are shortly to receive further payments from
Communist funds. The degree of confusion caused by police raids on union
premises is bound to make this a lengthy and difficult process.
6. The continued bomb and incendiary attacks, although ineffective
and infrequent, have succeeded in maintaining a certain degree of
tension. Otherwise there has been a noticeable increase in confidence in
all quarters except among the Communists whose morale appears still to
be declining. The main problem at the moment is the border which remains
difficult.
(Passed to D.S.A.0. for repetition to Washington
and Canberra and as advance copies for Commonwealth Secretary, Far
Eastern Dept., Foreign Office
and News Dept., Commonwealth Office)
(Encyphered text passed to L.T.C. for repetition
to Peking and POLAD Singapore)
Distribution - H.K. W.I.D. 'C'
- I.G.D.
J.I.C. EXTERNAL DI STRIBUTION
DEPARTMENTAL DISTRIBUTION
Copies also sent to:
P.S. to Prime Minister
Cabinet Office
Foreign Office
H
帽
*
H
H
FO/CO (IPGD)
(IRD)
Treasury
Export Credits Guarantee Dept.
Ministry of Defence (Rm.7365)
Board of Trade
#
[1]
H (Rm.7163)
憎 (Rm.51 31)
(CRE 4)
Hong Kong Government office
Commonwealth Office (News Dept.)
Foreign Office (News Dept.)
Australia House (Senior External
Affairs Representative)
Canada House (Counseller)
- D.I.O. J.I.R.
- P.S. to Mr. Rodgers
- Mr. de la Mare
-
-
Mr. Bolland
Mr. Wilson
Mr. Denson
Mr. Foggon
Mr. Littlejohn-Cook
Mr. J.H. Peck
Mr. D. Hawking
Mr. C.P. Rawlings
Mr. Henn
Major Koe
1.0.2
Mr. J.A.B. Darlington
Mr. B.E.P. MacTavish
Mr. P. Sedgwick
Mr. Glover
Duty Officer
Mr. T. Critchley
Mr. K. McLellan
CONFIDENTIAL
353
En Clair
PEKING TO FOREIGN OFFICE
Telno 960 26 July 1967
UNCLASSIFIED
Addressed to Foreign Office telegram No. 960 of 26 July Repeated for
information to Hong Kong, Washington and POLAD Singapore
'People's Daily' of 26 July carries three articles on Hong Kong. The
first reports the setting up on 22 July of a Hong Kong and Kowloon
Fishermen's Struggle Committee to oppose the Hong Kong British
authorities.
+
The second reports a statement on 23 July issued by the Secretariat
of the Afro-Asian Journaliste Association condemning the treatment of
NCNA and other journalists in Hong Kong.
The third reports an anti-British rally of 12,000 compatriots in
Macao on 24 July. There is also a photograph showing youthe and students
holding a pro-Mao demonstration in Northpoint.
Mr. Hopson
Sent 0425Z 26 July 1967
Reca 0826Z 26 July 1967
DEPARTMENTAL DISTRIBUTION
F.0.
F.E.D. S.E.A.D.
J.I.P.G.D.
J.I.R.D.
Central Dept. News Dept.
0.0.
D.T.D.
RECEIVED IN ARCHIVES No. 63 20 JUL 1707
Howrs
$
1171
PAR
See 1.5. ANNEY
954/357
954 Hong Kong het 1119
26/7/07
155 Minute
26.9.67
956 Menice t
26.767
957 16
to Hong Kong Tel 1542
26.7.67
+
\..
Mr. Goddon
3358
758
I told the Minister of Stato yesterday that the
Foreign Office wore going to send us a passage on long
Kong which it was proposed to includo in the Foreign Secretary's sponch
at the House on Thursday. This is now
attached.
2. It is possiblo that, following on the Secretary
of Stato'o talk with Mr. Haudling this morning, to shall
not be botharod by any direct question about our intention
to renain in Ilong Kong. Howovor, if this is raised, I do
not think it will bo possible to say loss than is proposed
in the section in squaro brackets.
3. For the root, I think the material provided for the
Foreign Secretary strikns just about the right noto. I
have boon asked to obtain clearance for this by to-night.
рад
(i.S. Cartor)
18.7.67.
As the House has already been told by my Right
Hon. Friend, the Commonwealth Secretary, the Hong Kong
Government has acted with the greatest possiblo
restraint in maintaining peace in the territory
and thoro lo no foundation whatever in accusations of
atrocities. But we cannot allow ourselves to be
intimidatod ofthor by throats from China or by the
violont outbreaks of local Communist sympathisors.
As my Right Hon. Friend made it clear in his statement
on 10 July, the Hong Kong authorities have tho full
support of Har Hajesty's Goverment in taking all
necessary monaurco to maintain poaco and security in
Hong Kong. We intend to fulfil our rosponsibilities
towards Hong Kong and to take all the mosaures needed
to restore the situation there so that the people may
settlo dom once again to their normal pursuits.
If someone ask "Is it our intention to remain
in Hong Kong?", the Secretary of Stato night
raply "Certainly, we intend to stay".]
We hope that on this basis our relations with
China may be put on their provious footing to the
mutual benefit both of Hong Kong and China.
Brefinal entered JIPED
CONFIDENTIAL
BRITISH EXWASSY
Washington, D.C. 18 July, 1967
159
I onclone copies of a concerted acries of articles from last Sunday's
Bashington Post on the general theme of Fritain's problemo in her
remaining dependent territories. There are sparo copies of this letter
and enclosures for you to pass on to the Departmento concerned.
2. As you will sce, two of the four articles are reprints from The
Observer. Lary Stern is the City Editor of the Washington Post end not
really a foreign affaire man at all. The only genuine Washington Post
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.