End to the Void

For more than two years, Anthony Grey's world was a 12-ft.-sq. whitewashed room in Peking. He lived in a void: no one spoke to him and, except for three brief calls by British diplomats, no one was permitted to visit him. Outside the open door of his room stood an armed guard, and others ringed the walled compound of the house. Last week, after 26 months of mind-numbing confinement, the Chinese government suddenly released Grey, a 30-year-old correspondent for Britain's Reuters wire service.

Grey was originally confined without charges in July 1967. It was Peking's retribution for the arrest and later imprisonment of eight Communist Chinese newsmen by the Hong Kong government following Maoist riots in the British colony. After the eight were freed, Peking announced that Grey would not be freed until 13 more Communist newspaper and news-agency employees were released from jail in the crown colony. The Hong Kong government refused to bow to such blackmail. The men served most of their sentences, and last week, the 13th was finally released. Soon afterward, Grey was taken to the British legation in Peking for a few days of rest before returning to Britain.

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