En Clair

MOSCOW TO FOREIGN OFFICE

Tel. No. 1381

UNCLASSIFIED

976

10 August, 1967

Addressed to Foreign Office telegram No. 1381 of

10 August.

Repeated for information to Peking, Hong Kong, POLAD Singapore and Washington.

(337)

My telegram No. 1279: Hong Kong.

Izvestyia of 9 August publishes an article commenting on the situation in Hong Kong.

2. According to the article the British authorities have recently launched a broad offensive against the Chinese population. The world Press generally agreed that, notwith- standing all the fuss it was making, Peking was trying to help the colonisers to suppress the Hong Kong workers. The reason for this was the desire to maintain the colony's "business activity", i.e., the cruel exploitation of the four million Chinese there, from which exploitation the Peking authorities as well as the British were profiting.

3. Thus food and water supplies to the colony, which brought the Mao group 40 million dollars per month, in practice continued to be provided from China and business deals continued to be concluded with British firms. Peking merely issued severe warnings to the Governor-General and demanded that people showing disrespect to Mao should be punished, while meetings in Peking passed resolutions. The Hong Kong authorities well knew that

It the Chinese leaders would in fact go on being cooperative. was indicative of this cooperation that when the British had recently expelled a hundred workers from Hong Kong these had not been received in Canton as heroes but had been sent to labour

camps,

Sir G. Harrison

FO/CO/WH. DISTRIBUTION

F.E.D.

Sent 1152Z/10 August Recd. 12432/10 August

XXXXX

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