A highly sensitive list of alleged agents working for British spy agency MI6 which has been published on the Internet contains the names of seven people said to have lived and worked in Hong Kong into the 1990s.
Investigations by the South China Morning Post have established at least three of those named - John Henry Cary Gerson, Colin Douglas Partridge and Rosalind Mary Elizabeth Fowler - were connected to, or spent time in Hong Kong working for, the UK Government.
Four others whom the list said had been posted to the SAR could not be traced. The list says the agents worked in Hong Kong between 1969 and 1994, although there was nothing to suggest any still lived in the SAR.
Mr Gerson took over as Britain's top military intelligence officer in the territory in 1987, Ms Fowler was a second secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for a short time from 1990 and Mr Partridge was the British Embassy's First Secretary in Vietnam and handled repatriation of Vietnamese boat people from the territory in 1989.
The British secret intelligence service has mounted a wide-scale security operation to protect dozens of agents after publication of the list.
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has said 'not all the names' on the list were connected with MI6.