Exchange For Grey Rejected By China

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32050, 26 July 1969, Page 13

Exchange For Grey Rejected By China

fN.Z.P.A.-Jteuter— Copyright) LONDON, July 25. The British Foreign Secretary (Mr Michael Stewart) said last night that the British Government had tried—and failed—to arrange an exchange with the Chinese for the release of the Reuter correspondent, Mr Anthony Grey. Mr Stewart told a press conference, called to discuss the release of the British lecturer, Mr Gerald Brooke, from a Soviet prison, that Britain had offered to send to China 13 Chinese newsworkers held in Hong Kong prisons if Mr Grey were released in Peking. The Chinese authorities had turned this offer down, he said. Informed sources said that the Chinese felt the newsworkers should remain in Hong Kong, which Peking regards as an integral part of China. Mr Grey, who is 31, has been confined to his house in Peking for two years, but has never been charged with any offence. At the time of his deten-

tion the official New China News Agency said that he was being held in retaliation for “British imperialists’ illegal persecution” of Chinese newsworkers in Hong Kong. Asked if the arrangement for Mr Brooke’s release set a precedent in the case of Mr Grey, Mr Stewart said: "There are very important differences between Mr Grey’s case and that of Mr Brooke. “We suggested to the Chinese some time ago that we might be able to get the release of Mr Grey in return for the release of certain Chinese news-workers in Hong Kong—they would go back to China in the way that the Krogers will presumably go back to Poland. “The Chinese made it quite clear that an arrangement of this kind was not possible. “What was in issue there was that the Chinese newsworkers should be released and be free to continue to live in Hong Kong, and carry on their occupation there. “That is rather different from what is proposed in relation to the Krogers.” Mr Jim Bradley, general secretary of Britain’s National Union of Journalists, said last night: “I think the British Government has shown itself to be pretty well powerless about Grey.”