0003160 G.F. 316
SECRET
Copy No.
18
SAVINGRAM
From:
The Governor, Hong Kong.
Repeated:
To:
The Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs
P.A. to C. in C. F.E.
32
Peking
27
No:
948
Tamsui
12
Date:
May 11th, 1967.
Manila
6
Ref:
TS 2/57 III
C. in C. F.b.
RAYS OFFICE 23 MAY 1967
COMUNA ALTH OFFICE, DENINT TERRITORIES
JUIKSKON.
L.I.C. MONTHLY EXTERNAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT
APRIL, 1967
RECEIVED IN
M76 ARCHI
HWA Blx
Discord among Red Guard factions and revolutionary groups in Canton has, according to usually reliable sources, continued despite the assumption by the PLA last month of control of the Kwangtung provincial and Canton municipal governments. There is little doubt that the ideological struggle is still intense and there is every indication that the MAOists thems lves believe that it will take a considerable time before the necessary unity can be achieved to form any effective alliance which can lead to a return to civil administration. However, since the establishment of the Military Control Committee last month, reports in the left-wing press confirmed by returning travellers indicate that Canton has been free from the violence and public disputes which marked the first 2 months of the year. A reliable visitor to Canton, who returned in early April, reported that soldiers were stationed in all organisations and industrial units in Canton, where they exercise supervisory functions. Other local sources who visited Kwangtung over the easter holidays saw no evidence of strikes, absenteeism or go-slow movements. One stated that political study groups had been formed in all organisations and that keen competition exists between them in order to avoid the criticism which falls upon those who are considered to be backward. Another source has stated that there were still many organisations in Canton which came under attack from the more ardent MAOists, and even the Canton Daily, the control of which was taken over by the military in March, was subjected to sharp criticism by pro-MAO students for distorting the truth about the "Cultural Revolution" and protecting the Party establishment.
2.
The existence of a Red Guard organisation, known as the "United Action Committee", which is alleged to support LIU Shao Chi and the Farty establishment in opposition to MAO, was admitted publicly for the first time in an editorial in the Peking Daily on April 15th which called for its isolation from the masses and the punishment of leaders of organisations associated with it. In a speech on the 20th April inaugurating the newly-established Peking Municipal Revolutionary Committee, Public Security Kinister HSIEH Fu Chih (m) also denounced this organisation. Urging unity among proletarian revolutionaries, he warned them not to unite with groups associated with the "United Action Committee", which he condemned as reactionary . a poster, reported by Japanese sources to have been exhibited in Peking on 3 April, the "United Action Committee" was described as an organisation of reactionary Red Guards, the nucleus of which was composed of the offspring of leading Party cadres and senior military officers. The poster linked it with CHAO Tzu Yang, the disgraced First Secretary of the Kwangtung Provincial C.C.P. Committee, in whose possession a directive was said to have been
/found
In
SECRET