CONFIDENTIAL
sts has seen.
SPEAKING NOTES FOR SECRETARY OF STATE IN CABINET
24
-11/7/67
HONG KONG
*
The bare details of the weekend incident on Hong Kong's border I gave in the House yesterday. It took place at Shau Tau Kok, a village at the Eastern end of the frontier which in fact runs along the main street. Several hundred demonstrators crossed the frontier
The demonstrators on Saturday and attacked the Police post there. included members of the People's Militia, a fact which has since been confirmed by a Communist newspaper in Hong Kong. The Police used tear gas and "baton guns" (i.e. weapons firing wooden projectiles) to disperse the crowd. They then came under fire from several points,
Five Police were including automatic fire from Chinese territory.
killed and 11 wounded. Gurkhas were brought in later to relieve the Post and completed this operation successfully without opening fire. They have taken up positions in the British part of the village from which the majority of the inhabitants have now withdrawn to well inside British territory.
There are some points to which I should like to draw attention.
The Chinese side undoubtedly fired first. Two Pakistani policemen in the Post were killed by snipers and two Chinese police in the relieving company mortally wounded before permission to open fire was sought and obtained by wireless.
It is equally certain that some fire was directed from Chinese territory. Indeed, the Chinese have admitted this in the Note they sought to prosent on 9th July. As the Foreign Secretary will confirm we have made an energetic protest and found ourselves at the receiving end of a counter-protest.
Those who attacked the Police post assembled in Chinese territory
The co-ordinated nature of the and included members of the Militia. attacks and the skill and accuracy with which the firearms were used indicate that many of those taking part had military training. There
/is
CONFIDENTIAL