SUNFIDENTIAL
re-established.
the
In these circumstances a policy of vigilance
coupled with flexibility would seem to be the right one.
9. It is generally agreed that there are two areas of
particular sensitivity for the Communists in Hong Kong:
press and education. In the case of the former the Governor
has acted with great restraint in permitting Communist
newspapers to continue publication even though they are
consistently in breach of the law because of the inflammatory
and sometimes seditioue material they publish. In the oase
of education he is also showing himself aware of ühinese
sensitivity by not acting against certain Communist schools
when he would be perfectly entitled to do so legally. If
he felt this was desirable, we should have to weigh carefully
the risk to Sino-British relations against the risk to our
authority in Hong Kong. This first risk might have to be
taken if we were convinced either that there was a real danger
of the influence of Communist schools infecting the education
system as a whole or if the disregard of the law by managers
of Communist schools constituted a serious threat to the
authority of the Hong Kong Government. The number of
children in Communist schools only represents some 2.4 per
cent of the total school population in the Colony and though
it has risên 0.5 per cent since last year, in overall terms
no real danger can yet be said to exist. Nonetheless, public
apprehension at the progressive spread of Communism through
schools is real and has no doubt increased following the events
CONFIDENTIAL
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