Substitute For Grey Offered

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31881, 8 January 1969, Page 11

Substitute For Grey Offered

(N Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright > GENEVA, January 7. A Belgian-born journalist, Mr Jacques Marcuse, is flying to Hong Kong to offer himself to the Peking authorities in exchange for Mr Anthony Grey, the Reuters correspondent who has been detained bv the Chinese since July, 1967.

Mr Marcuse’s wife said her husband would put himself at the disposal of the Chinese for 24 hours. He was flying direct from Brussels, arriving in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Mr Marcuse, aged 57 and a veteran China correspondent, wrote to the Chinese Prime Minister (Mr Chou Enlai) last month offering himself in exchange for Mr Grey. In his letter, he said he would offer himself to the Chinese authorities at. the I China-Kowloon border in Hong Kong

Mr Marcuse was in China as recently as 1964, as correspondent of the French news agency, Agence FrancePresse. He is now a freelance journalist based in Geneva. He says that, as the author of a book critical of the Maoist regime, he would be guilty of a crime in Chinese eyes, while Mr Grey is merely a hostage in a political game. From Hong Kong it is re-

ported that the authorities have released five Com-; munists detained in connec-i tion with the disturbances in 1967, reducing the number of detainees in the Govern-1 ment’s detention centre tol seven. At one time, 54 persons wer? detained under the emergency regulations imposed during the disturbances. About 1000 persons were imprisoned during the height of the trouble, but only 368 are still held. They include 11 Communist reporters.