1966年9月，七名台湾官员组成的工业参观团向英国驻淡水领事馆申请签证。尽管英国外交部一向秉承友好的态度对待来自台湾的签证申请，但这次7位申请者有5人是台湾省政府的官员，另外2人所在的国际经济合作和发展委员会则是国民党中央政府的下设机构。根据英国承认北京政权而不承认国民党政权的立场，英国驻淡水领事馆只能保持同台湾省政府的最低限度的联系，而不能与国民党中央政府有联系。如果一下批准这么多名官员的签证，那就看起来像台湾代表团对英国进行官方访问，这极有可能招致中共驻英代办处的抗议甚至报复。毕竟1961年当台湾的中国石油公司代表团可能访英时，中共作出了激烈的反应。
英国外交部远东司司长A.J. De La
Mare特意就此事向R. E.
Marsh做了解释。Marsh是英国工业联合会的代表，他与国民党政权在英代表处Free China
Information Center关系良好。
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20February 1967
From: A.J. De La Mare, Esq. CMG.
Foreign Office,
Downing Street,
LONDON - S.W.1.
To: R. E. Marsh, Esq. ,
Confederation of British
Industries,
21 Tothill Street,
S.W.1.
Refusal of visas for a party of Formosan
Officials
As promised in my letter of 10 February, I have
now looked into our refusal of visas to the party of Formosans about which you
wrote to me on 8 February.
Mr. Lu and his colleagues were in fact all
officials in the employ of the Formosan authorities. According to our records,
five worked for the Taiwan Provincial Government and the other two were members
of the Council for International Economic Co-operation and Development, which we
understand is an organisation of the Nationalist Central Government.
We are
as sympathetic as possibl to visa applications from Formosa and, within the
limitations imposed on us by our recognition of Peking, we encourage commercial
contacts. We certainly have no objection to visits by Formosan tourists or
businessmen, or even by individual officials who wish to come here in a
strictly private capacity. But, since we do not recognise the Nationalist regime,
you will understand that our contacts with Formosan officials as such have to
be kept to an absolute minimum, especially in this country. To have allowed a
party of seven Nationalist officials to come here on what would have appeared
to be an official visit would clearly have invited a protest and possible
retaliation from Peking. Our exports to China in 1966 amounted to £32 million.
There are unhappily many occasions when our choice does not lie between a right
and a wrong course, but when we have to opt for that of two wrong courses which
is likely to be least damaging. Ideally speaking it was wrong to refuse these
people visas; but practically speaking it would have been wrong to incur the
risk to which granting them would have laid us open. We therefore had to advise
the Home Office to refuse them.
I am sending a copy of this letter to Michael Montague.
(A.J. de la Mare)
__________________________________________________
CONFIDENTIAL
Mr. Denson
Refusal of visas for a party of Formosan officials
Mr. de la Mare's minute of 10 February - below.
2. Our Consulate in Tamsui first informed us of
this proposed visit last September. As you will see from their letter of 20
September all seven of the party were Formosan officials, five from the
Provincial Government and two from an organ of the Central Nationalist
Government. The party were on a tour of
a number of countries to study industrial estate
development.
3. We have always vetted visa applications from
Formosa sympathetically. Individual cases are decided on an ad hoc
basis, the aim of our scrutiny being to ensure that our contacts with the
Formosan authorities are kept to the bare minimum as is consistent with the
fact that we do not recognise the Nationalist regime. (Our policy is set out in
more detail in your letter of 3 February to Mr. Bray in Tamsui).
4. On a previous occasion when there was a possibility that a party of Formosan officials from the Chinese Petroleum
Corporation might visit the United Kingdom in 1961 the Chinese Mission here
protested vociferously and we subsequently refused the visas for the Formosans. If visas had been granted on the occasion we are now considering we
might have been faced with a similar situation.
5. Nevertheless in view of the fact that five of
the seven officials concerned worked for the Provincial authorities (to whom
H.M. Consul in Tamsui is accredited) we took the precaution of first asking our Consulate whether a refusal
to grant visas in this case would cause them serious embarrassment. They
replied that serious embarrassment was unlikely.
6.
We then advised
the Home Office to refuse the visas. They subsequently informed us that the
Home Secretary had agreed to this on the understanding that the Foreign Office
would say that this decision had been taken on their advice if it were ever
publicly queried.
7. I submit a draft reply. I
believe that Mr. Marsh maintains close connexions with the Free China Information
Centre. I have therefore drafted the reply in fairly guarded terms. Mr. Marsh
(and the Nationalists) know only too well that we have no intention of giving
the Chinese
Mission such obvious pretexts for protesting and that we do not intend to place our trade
with China at risk (our exports came to £32 million in 1966) for the sake of
allowing into the U.K., groups of officials of a regime not recognised by
H.M.G. There is no need in my view to spell this out.
(D. J. MOSS)
15 February. 1967
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