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PART VI CONCLUSIONS
into the heart of Kowloon during the hours of darkness gave rise to a level of excitement and teenage hysteria which spilled over into violence and looting on the evening and night of 6th/7th April. The violence was continued on the following night by bands of youths, fortuitously gathered, who had found in the events of the previous evening so much attraction and excitement and so little danger that they readily came back for more. Thereafter, the measures taken by the police, which had generally been characterized by restraint, the introduction of earlier curfews and the presence of military forces proved entirely effective in bringing rioting and disorder to an end, after a period which had seen considerable physical damage but little personal injury.
555. In our concluding chapters, we have analysed these events in relation both to their immediate causes and the underlying reasons which may have played a part in bringing them about.
556. We do not believe that political, economic and social frustrations were the direct cause of the 1966 riots but within the economic and social fields there are factors, to which we have drawn attention and that need to be watched, lest they provide inflammable material which could erupt into disturbances should opportunity arise in the future.
December 1966.
MICHAEL HOGAN
C. K. Lo
L. T. RIDE
MAURICE P. K. WONG
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