COPY FOR REGISTRATION
CONFIDENTIAL
INWARD TELEGRAM
TO THE COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
(The Secretary of State)
FROM HONG KONG (O.A.G.)
AUG
12
Cypher
D. 11 August 1967
020OZ
Ro
11
PRIORITY
CONFIDENTIAL
No.1204
Addressed to Commonwealth Office Repeated to: Peking No.504
1967
57
RECEIVED IN ARCHIVES No. 63 14 MUGI967
HWA 4/1
POLAD Singapore No.296 Washington No.252
(Please pass PRIORITY to Peking
ROUTINE to other two)
(54)
Your telegram No.1627.
Man Kam To Incident.
REF
NEXT
REF.
(28)
(۷۹)
•
The origins are described in my telegram No.1171 The senior officers present at the outset were a Queen's Commissioned Gurkha Officer and a Police Inspector. Although they could have used firearms they decided not to do so, rightly in my view. Instead they tried to find out what the men's grievance was as a preliminary to recovering their arms. It soon emerged that the removal of posters from the wall of the police post was the cause of the trouble.
2.
Commander 48 Brigade, who was by chance visiting troops not far away, on hearing of the incident ordered forward a company of troops with armoured cars in support. He then went to the post where the Gurkhas were continuing discussions in a calm atmosphere and took charge. By this time the few Chinese Army Guards who had originally been present had been reinforced to platoon strength. The District Officer, Taipo, who had been ordered to the spot, joined him at 1115 a.m. Tea was thereupon brought from Chinese territory.
30 The Chinese remained friendly but entirely obdurate about the removal of their posters. Brigadier and D.O. repeated ad nauseam our policy in relation to posters and study meetings
The Chinese sought assurances about my telegram No.1172).
their future safety and a guarantee that they would not be proceeded against for their action. This was why we said that we accepted that the safety of workers in British territory was
our concern.
40 Brigadier and D.0. strongly resisted the demand that these points should be put in writing, but ultimately decided that unless they did so they would not be able to bring the incident to a close and recover the weapons, certainly not without bloodshed. A statement of our policy was therefore drafted in English, translated into Chinese and subsequently signed. The text in my immediately following telegram is a retranslation into English of the not very elegant Chinese text.
15.
CONFIDENTIAL