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PART V PERSONS INVOLVED
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curacies, we think we have been able, with the help of some confirmation from other sources, to get a broad and reasonably reliable impression of what these five young men were like, and of the part they played in the disturbances. It is not necessary to set out in detail the activities of other participants, but in Appendix 12, we summarize the reasons advanced by those who gave testimony before us, as to why they came to be involved.
Brian Edward RAGGENSACK
329. RAGGENSACK was born in Hong Kong in 1946. He was brought up by his mother, and during his upbringing apparently had no contact with his father. At the time of the disturbances he was living at Kimberley Road in Kowloon with his two sisters and an aunt. What little schooling he had, began when he was seven years old, but from the age of about nine to fourteen years he was working as a door boy or a waiter. In 1960, he went back to an evening school for three months, the fees being paid by a friend of his mother who ceased to pay in the fourth month. Thereafter, he worked as a door boy at a bar in Kimberley Road, and as a singer for a short period at a nightclub. He worked for a month at the President Hotel in 1964 and at the time of the disturbances, was working as a freelance tourist guide where his earnings fluctuated greatly, within the range, apparently, of $100 to $700 per month. He had had an earlier brush with authority in February of this year, when a larceny charge resulted in his being bound over.
330. His early appearance at the Star Ferry with SO Sau Chung has already been noted (para. 83). According to him, he made, at SO's request, a speech urging people to support the fight against the Ferry Company, not necessarily by hunger striking but by petition, letters, etc. His appearance at the Star Ferry was due, he told us, to his interest in the proposed rise in ferry fares and rises in other things like rent and bus fares. What he had read in a newspaper about SO Sau Chung's hunger strike had captured his imagination and his observation of SO has already been recounted. He was well to the fore in the visit to Government House, following SO's arrest, at the meeting with Mrs. ELLIOTT and Mr. BERNACCHI, in the visits to the Central Police Station and to SO's parents, and in the subsequent marches in Kowloon, at least the first of which he led with LO Kei. RAGGENSACK admitted that it was he who suggested turning back the first time at Bute Street but, generally in his evidence before us, he seemed anxious to present LO Kei as the principal leader at this stage. Having recounted the speeches made by LO Kei and himself, when they returned to the ferry concourse, he spoke of a change in the mood of the crowd, and claimed that his participation in the further march northwards was only half-hearted and that when the crowd left Li Cheng Uk it was, he thought, a different type of crowd from that at the Star Ferry; this latter consisted mainly of his friends, while the crowd after leaving Li Cheng Uk seemed to be less interested in the Star Ferry issue. On seeing the police shortly after- wards he and his group, according to him, detached themselves, at his suggestion,