Cypher
IMMEDIATE SECRET
No. 655
SECRET
INWARD TELEGRAM
TO THE COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (The Secretary of State)
FROM HONG KONG (Sir D. Trench)
D. 20th May, 1967 R. 20th
11
#t
1450Z
16
G
MAY 1967
FV
103
Addressed to Commonwealth Office (D.T.D.), Repeated to Peking, No. 245,
17
"POLAD Singapore, No. 113,
"Washington, No. 127 (Secretary of
State please pass IMMEDIATE to all).
My telegram No. 650.-190
SITREP as at 20/2000 hours.
Confrontation with the Left Wing.
Much
After a quiet night without curfew or incident the pressure was once again on Government House. the same drill was followed as yesterday but the demon- strators were in an uglier mood. Numbers involved though never greatly above 3,000, were on the whole larger and there were unpleasant elements who deliberately tried to provoke the police. On two occasions at about 1100 hours and 1500 hours the police cordons had to be reinforced. After 1500 hours there was a new development when crowds denied immediate access to Government House began to move back into the area of Statue Square opposite the Bank of China and also westwards, causing considerable traffic congestion.
the
2. Soon after 1600 hours Government House, front of which was plastered once again with posters, ceased to be the focal point which now shifted to the Statue Square area. The crowd here was about 1,000 strong, a considerable percentage appearing to be bystanders. Except for the occasional hooliganism, directed mainly át Europeans with cameras, the crown remained reasonably orderly. A loud- speaker from the Bank of China interspersing offensive propaganda with Communist music tended to raise the general temperature. Soon after 1700 hours the crowd began to dis- perse, westwards and eastwards. The withdrawal of the police to less obtrusive positions probably contributed to this dispersal though it may have given the Left Wing the idea that they had achieved a victory.
SECRET
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