Likee Humble Pie ?
, Although it is already almost smothered under subsequent developments, the most remarkable single facet of the Hainan inrisis was the Chinese apology to the British Government. It as delivered within three days of the outrage being committed d within two days of our protest being received in Peking. broadcast programme was interrupted to announce the terms in which it had been made, and which were known to the British public, via the BBC news bulletins on Monday Morning, before (I imagine) Mr. Humphrey Trevelyan's official Message embodying them had been deciphered at the Foreign Office. Although it contained one disingenuous reference to ' fighting,' which was sharply corrected by a subsequent British note, the apology was unreserved and the offer to consider com- pensation clear. This was completely out of character. To promise an investigation of the circumstances, to await the return of Mr. Chou En-lai and eventually to allege that the air-liner had been off course, had ' violated the security Of a prohibited area' and more or less deserved what it got— something on these lines would have been a much more normal battern of procedure. Such, at least, were Peking's reactions to an incident last September, when in the Pearl River estuary a Chinese gun-boat fired on HM Motor Launch 1323, killing seven and wounding five of the crew. A British pro- test delivered on September 12 was rejected 18 days later. A further British protest, with a demand for compensation, ivas sent in October and has not, as far as I know, been answered yet. .‘
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