Compal a HWA 7/2
INWARD TELEGRAM
TO THE COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
(The Secretary of State)
FROM HONG KONG (Sir D. Trench)
En clair D.
11
Re
8th May, 1967. 8th
10112
PRIORITY No. 557.
Addressed to Commonwealth Office. Repeated
#1
"Peking No. 197.
" POLAD Singapore No. 64.
The left wing papers this morning (8th May) continue to give full front page and Hong Kong news page treatment to the incident at the artificial flower factory and publish editorials on this and other recent incidents.
2. The Rubber and Plastic Workers' Union met last night
and decided to put forward four demanda:
(a) immediate release of the workers arrested,
(b) punishment of the evil doers and compensation,
(c) guarantee of the workers personal safety,
(a)
no interference henceforth by the police in labour disputes.
3. The line taken in the editorials is that the British Authorities in a planned and premediated way have organised a series of bloody repressions of workers and patriotic compatriots in the Kowloon area, amounting to Fascist violence. The workers did not break any law in the artificial flower factory dispute: they were merely demanding the cancellation of some new regulations imposed by the management. If the British Authorities in Hong Kong did not deliberately fabricate this incident and are not attempting to enlarge it, they ought to recognise the error which they committed on 6th May and immediately accept the workers' "few minimum demands".
The Ta Kung Po editorial refers to the increased use of Hong Kong by U.S. imperialism as an aggressive base and to the anti-China activities of the imperialists, revisionists and the reactionaries. It goes on to say that after the Macao affair many U.S./Chiang elements concentrated in Hong Kong carry out their activities and that most of the incidents which have accurred have been stirred up by U.S./Chiang elements. The Wen Wei Pao editorial says "we consider that the imperialists who deliberately undertook the violent and bloody repression of patriotic compatriots will definitely come to no good end, nor will those traitorous Chinese running dogs who "help them" We hope that those policemen who, under the protection of the
/Hong Kong
JA
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