En Clair
Porijinale HWB5)1
INWARD TELEGRAM
TO THE COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (The Secretary of State)
FROM HONG KONG (Sir D. Trench)
D. 7th May, 1967 R. 7th
11
05002.
IMMEDIATE No. 552
Addressed to Commonwealth Office (D.T.D.) Repeated "Peking No. 194.
$1
"Political Adviser Singapore No. 62.
The Left-Wing papers this morning (7th May) devote the whole of their front pages and Hong Kong news pages and space on other pages to highly critical reports, photographs and commentator articles about an incident during a labour dispute at an artificial flower factory on 6th May in which the police arrested 21 workers.
2.
The line taken is that this bloody suppression of patriotic workers and patriotic compatriots by the police was pre-planned and organised and was of a piece with the action taken on 4th May at the walled city and with the earlier protection given to the United States/ Chiang elements in the dispute at the Nanfung textile factory in Tsun Wan.
30 The Ta Kung Pao commentator asks whether the British authorities in Hong Kong intended to provoke the Chinese residents and says that people are looking closely to see how the British authorities will deal with the matter. The Wenwei Po commentator asks whether the British authorities dare openly to be enemies of the Chinese people and if so whether they have thought out the consequences the consequences will certainly not be good.
(Advance copy passed to Resident Clerk.)
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F.E.D.
Overseas Labour Adviser
PA