0003230
$
G.F. 323
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3
working individually rather than under the close control of any central organisation. This impression is strengthened by (a) the wide variety of bombs encountered, (b) the fact that a number of small factories (e. g. in squatter huts or even cubicles) have been discovered, and (c) the often haphazard way in which bombs have been planted. There is also no evidence to date of any sophisticated devices being imported from China. Although there is doubtless some coordination it is not yet clear how far it goes, Cells for bomb operations appear to have been formed primarily within a number of Communist controlled unions prominent among them being the Government Armed Forces and Hospital Chinese Workers' Union, the Motor Transport Workers Union and the Spinning, Weaving and Dyeing Workers' Union; students from the Communist Hon Wah and Heung To Middle Schools have also been implicated.
9.
cases;
(a)
(b)
10.
Indications of how the cells work can be seen in two recent
On 30th August a man was caught planting a bomb in Sports Road. His interrogation led to the arrest of two more men, and a fourth man in North Point the next morning. A cache of five bombs, three sticks of gelignite, 45 detonators and various lengths of fuse was then found under a pile of sand nearby. The same day a fifth man who had recruited at least two members of the group was arrested at Bisney Villas, Western District, where he worked as a watchman. It is also known that three further persons were involved with the group. This group was financed and apparently controlled by a watch- man of the Bank of Communications at North Point who stayed in the background and left the leadership to a quarry worker who made the bombs and gave them to two other members for planting.
On 2nd September two men were arrested in a flat at Tai Wo Hau Resettlement Estate in possession of four gelignite bombs. Under interrogation they admitted responsibility for at least two previous bomb attacks in Tsuen Wan. After further Police enquiries, a third member of the group, who actually made the bombs, and was responsible for the explosion on the hillside above Tai Wo Hau on 1st September, when a police constable was injured, as well as for bombing a telephone booth on 4th August, was arrested on 20th September.
It appears that the people recruited for the bomb groups are for the most part Communist sympathisers and not just criminals glad of a chance to earn some more money on the side.
Types of Bombs Used.
To begin with the explosive devices used were crude and inefficient but they have grown increasingly sophisticated and dangerous during the campaign. Initially the majority of the bombs were merely tins filled with firecracker gunpowder; later, nuts or bits of metal were added as shrapnel. Recently, more solid types of casing have
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