HL Deb 11 March 1969 vol 300 cc455-8WA
LORD TREFGARNE

asked Her Majesty's Government:

  1. (a) How many British subjects or British-protected persons are at present detained in Communist China;
  2. (b) how many of these persons have been charged with an offence;
  3. (c) what representations have been made to the Chinese authorities in respect of these persons; and what has been the response.

LORD SHEPHERD

The following is a list of British subjects detained or believed to be detained in the Chinese People's Republic:

Mr. Anthony Grey, Reuters correspondent in Peking, was placed under house arrest on July 21, 1967, in retaliation for the arrest and sentencing to two years' imprisonment of a New China News Agency reporter in Hong Kong.

Mr. George Watt, an engineer employed by Vickers-Zimmer, was detained in Lanchow on September 26, 1967. On March 15, 1968, he was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for alleged spying.

Mr. Norman Barrymaine, a free-lance journalist, was detained in Shanghai on February 23, 1968. He was a passenger aboard a Polish ship.

Mr. P. D. Crouch, Second Officer of the "Demodocus", was detained in Shanghai on April 3, 1968.

Captain P. M. Will, Master of the "Kota Jaya", was detained at Tang-ku, off Tien-tsin, on or about July 3, 1968.

Mr. Eric Gordon, who was employed at the Foreign Languages Press in Peking, was due to leave China with his wife and son at the beginning of November, 1967. No news was received of them until February 11, 1969 when the Office of the Chinese Chargé d'Affaires in London informed his relatives that they had been detained for investigations into alleged breaches of Chinese regulations.

Mr. D. C. Johnston, the former Manager of the Shanghai Branch of the Chartered Bank, was detained in Shanghai on August 25, 1968.

In March, 1968, reports reached the British Missions in Peking that the following British subjects, all of whom were employed by the Chinese authorities, had been detained towards the end of 1967:—

  • Mrs. Epstein (née Elsie Fairfax-Cholmondley).
  • Mr. Michael Shapiro.
  • Mr. David Crook.

In July, 1968, a report was received that Mrs. Gladys Yang had been detained about the beginning of that month. She worked as a literary translator for the Chinese authorities.

In addition, two further British subjects, Mr. H. H. Ross and Mr. Daiko, together with nationals from France, Sweden and the United States, have been in Chinese hands since February 16, 1969, when their yachts were detained by the Chinese authorities while on a journey from Hong Kong to Macao.

Mr. George Watt is the only one of the above persons known to have been formally charged with an offence.

The British Mission in Peking has made repeated requests to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for information about detained British subjects and for Consular access to them. In addition Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers have raised these cases with the Chinese Chargé d'Affaires in London, the last occasion being on January 9. No satisfactory reply has been received from the Chinese, although two visits to Mr. Grey by officials of the British Mission in Peking were permitted in April and November, 1968.

House adjourned at three minutes past nine o'clock.