1969年4月6日星期天，英国驻华外交官Hugh Davies（他后来在1993至1997年间任中英联合联络小组英方大使级代表）和夫人到代办处附近的日坛公园散步时遇到了两个敢于和他们聊了近一小时的北京人，一个是28岁的青年工人，另一个是干部。
Davies刚到公园时和一些好奇的、善意的游客简短地聊了几句，赞扬了日坛。但接着一个面目乖戾、衣装不整的青年插话，表示不同意保留这样的古建筑，理由是“毛主席号召要破旧”。Davies反驳说或许日坛是被保留下来作为负面例子的呢（当然他实际上是很欣赏日坛的，而且周围的十余名观众也都低声表示赞同）。
随后，Davies就和夫人离开，走上公园里小丘时的一个亭子，没想到这个青年人早已抄近路等在那里，并且说他想利用这个少见的机会“跟外国人交朋友”。这个人说自己是个工人，28岁，住在西单，有两个小孩都还没上学。就在他们聊天时，一位老师带着大概30名儿童过来游园，这位工人就比较紧张，不好继续聊下去。不过又来了一个干部加入谈话，他看起来很聪明，而且还知道一些国外的事情，比如牛津和剑桥大学。
Davies认为，这个工人要么是中共派来故意接近他的，要么就是此人太naive。但不论如何，整场遭遇可以说明官方对普通人与外国人接触的态度有略微的放松，毕竟就在几个月前北京市民对外国人的公开敌意还是很明显的。
另外，4月8日Davies曾单独报告：上述干部说北京的中学现在只有一年上外语课（俄语或者英语），他认为这时间显然太短。
CONFIDENTIAL
Office of the British Charge
d'Affaires
Peking
19 APRIL, 1969
Making Friends with foreigners
On Sunday, 6 April I had an unusual encounter
with some Chinese which is worth reporting. It took place when I was walking
with my wife in the park of the Altar of the Sun, very close to the office. I
have of course reported it to John Denson and James Allan and they thought you
would be interested to hear this account.
2. In the course of a short conversation with
some particularly friendly and interested visitors to the park, about the
significance of the various buildings, I was referred to another rather surlier
and scruffier person who was nearby. We two then had ten minutes discussion
about whether or not it was right to keep such relics of the past. He maintained that
Chairman Mao taught that everything old should be completely scrapped, but he
didn't take offence when I suggested that they might be kept as good negative
examples, (indeed I felt rather pleased with that one; the audience of, by now,
ten or twelve all murmured appreciatively.)
3. I
took my leave of him after about ten minutes and my wife and I strolled over to
a little pavilion on a hill. We were extremely surprised to meet our friend
again who had taken a short cut apparently with the object of speaking to me
further. Indeed he made no bones about it; he said he
wanted to take this rare opportunity to "make friends" with a foreigner (ken
waikwo jen chiao peng yu).
We then sat down in the sun and engaged in everyday conversation in the course
of which I told him who I was. It emerged that he was a factory worker, 28
years old, married with two small children (below school age) and he lived in
Hsitan (the street to the west of the city). Our conversation was interrupted
by the arrival of about thirty children,
on an outing with a female teacher, who surrounded us. My friend became slightly uneasy in pursuing
his conversation. Soon, however, another man came up and asked my friend who I
was. We then began a conversation between the three of us which lasted upwards
of forty minutes and covered a multitude of topics. The third man was a cadre,
very intelligent, with a good grasp of things outside China - he knew for
instance of Oxford and Cambridge. It was from him that I obtained the snippet
about foreign language teaching in schools (my letter of 8 April).
4. I only report the above in some detail
because of its extraordinary sequel. As I made to leave them, my original
factory-worker friend accompanied my wife and myself as far as the park gates.
I had already given him my (Chinese) name and told him where I worked. He now
stopped, produced a notebook and asked if I minded writing my name down for
him. I pretended inability to write the characters hoping to dissuade him. But
he proceeded to write it down himself quite unabashed and with the help of two
of the schoolgirls from the school outing. As he walked on he said he would like to write me a letter
because he wished that he should
meet again. He even spoke of meeting "at home". I asked whether he
meant his home or mine. He said he supposed he would be unable to come to my
house anyway. I confirmed this, trying to be apologetic, while all the time wondering if he could really be so naive as to want to invite a foreigner to his house. I tried to suggest to him that making friends
with foreigners might be "difficult" for him. He brushed aside all my
protests and finally shook my hand at the park gates.
5. The question arises whether he was a
"plant" attempting to compromise me, or whether he was merely very
naive. It is certainly odd
to find someone as politically dogmatic (as he proved himself in our first
conversation), yet so willing to be seen talking with a foreigner. He appears, however, to have had second
thoughts about his letter-writing; nothing has so far materialised. To that
extent the incident can now be considered closed. It was nevertheless a strange
happening, although it is symptomatic of what probably constitutes a slight relaxation in official attitudes governing
the ordinary man-in-the street's contact with foreigners. Foreigners are now at least no longer treated
with overt hostility by the general public, which was apparently the mood until
not so many months ago.
I am
copying this letter to Miss Draycott in IRD, Brewer in RD, Weston in PUSD,
Pierce in DIS, Spendlove in Washington, Hibbert in Singapore, McLaren and
Ashworth in Hong Kong, Hewitt
in Canberra and to Chancery at Tokyo.
Yours ever
Hugh
(H.Ll. Davies)
(to: ) J.D.I. Boyd, Esq. ,
Far Eastern Department
出处：英国外交部档案FCO_21_492
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