SECRET
Hong Kong telegram No. 1285 to Commonwealth Office
Comp
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(g) A continuation of virulent anti-British propaganda in the local Communist Press which has concentrated on the incidents on border and action by Government against three independent pro- Communist newspapers and their senior staff members.
(h) Two CPG protest Notes (both rejected by Charge in Peking) the first of which denounced provocative acts by British on border and demanded that the crossing points be re-opened; the second demanded that the Hong Kong Government withdraw the orders of suspension against three Communist newspapers, stop the legal actions against other Communist newspapers and release Communist newspaper workers who have been detained by police. The second Note demandeu that the British authorities comply before 2330 hours on 22 August.
(i) A move by Communist Trade Unions to pay out the third months "strike money". These payments are, in most cases, being made at workers' homes, although in one instance workers have collected their money at a Trade Union office.
(j) The continuation of efforts by the H.K. Seamen's Union to spread the strike amongst seamen on board ships calling at H.K. These efforts have met with some limited success but there has been no reported delays to shipping caused through the strike, although some ships have sailed short of a few crew members.
(k) The continued disruption of supplies by rail from China. This factor, together with the closure of the border crossing point at Man Kam To and some hold-ups of supplies by sea, caused by adverse weather conditions, has brought about a general rise in food prices.
3.[sic] Police action against Communist organisations has continued, in the course of which further quantities of offensive weapons, inflammatory posters and some documents of intelligence interest have been seized. A secretary of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce who has performed secretarial duties for the all circles anti- persecution struggle committee has been detained under the deportation of aliens ordinance.
40 As there was no moderation in the propaganda of the thres independently owned pro-Communist newspapers whose senior officials were arrested on 9 August, suspension orders against the newspapers were obtained on 17 August. The following day a broadsheet was published, as a joint edition of the three newspapers, and police subsequently raided their press offices. There being no evidence that the broadsheet had been printed on those premises, the machinery was not rendered inoperative. Since then no further editions have appeared. However, on 21 August a few copies of a Gestetnered sheet, purporting to replace the suspended newspapers, were issued. Delicate sources indicate that the Communists plan to issue publications of this type, printed covertly in place of any newspapers which Government closes down,
SECRET
/5. Director of