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increased use of the airport by the U. S. military. They claimed that from April 1965 to March 1966 (the period covered by the last published annual report of Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department), 21,847 U. S. military aircraft movements had taken place, compared with 20,525 civilian movements in the same period. They produced this figure by subtracting civil air transport movements from total air movements, and thus taking no account of R.A.F. movements into and out of Hong Kong or of test and training movements by locally based aircraft. The actual figure for U.S. military aircraft movements was 2,918. The charge nevertheless emphasises the desirability of keeping down the total number of U. S. military flights to and from Hong Kong which will, unfortunately, be thrown into high relief in future reports as a result of the removal of the R. A.F. squadron from Hong Kong. Another somewhat disturbing development was the appearance for the first time, in the campaign against the "Enterprise", of left- wing press references to the flights on chartered aircraft of U.S. troops coming on rest and recreation from Vietnam.
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On 17 March the left-wing press launched into criticism of what it alleged was a "plot to turn Hong Kong into a country": an entirely new subject, which, having once been aired in this way, is likely to constitute a new area of left-wing sensitivity in future. It was claimed that a number of U.K. and Hong Kong officials had recently referred to Hong Kong in various unrelated contexts as a "state" or "country These references were taken as evidence of an international "plot" to sever Hong Kong from China, when seen in the light of Hong Kong's participation in its own right at such international functions as international trade fairs, of "Soviet revisionist" references to Hong Kong as a country, of the pronounced aims of some of the political parties which had set themselves up at the direction of the "imperialists" in Hong Kong in the last few years and of the report of the Hong Kong government working party on local administration. For good measure, it was alleged that the plot was closely related to U.S. intentions vis-a-vis China, Like the protest over the "Enterprise's" visit, this issue was kept going in the left-wing press largely by means of readers' letters. The evidence for these allegations was unusually thin but enough was said to suggest that the intention was to deliver a warning to the Hong Kong public again st the growth of local pressure for moves towards Hong Kong self- government and the development of some form of "Hong Kong citizenship", Either by accident or design, the campaign subsided after the Secretary of State's statement, in reply to a parliamentary question, that special circumstances made normal constitutional advance towards self-government impracticable in Hong Kong. The statement was not itself, however mentioned in the left-wing press.
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The issue of "the two Chinas was raised once again, but fortunately in a very minor way. H.E. the Governor was taken to task for shaking hands with a Taiwanese golfer when handing out prizes at the Hong Kong Golf Championship and for doing so in the shadow of a Chinese Nationalist flag. We may hear more of this when the Chinese are looking for sticks with which to beat us, but it was given space in the left-wing papers on only one day.
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The Seacom network, which was finally completed at the end of the month came in for left-wing comment on the grounds that part of it was routed through Guam, and was thus connected with the U.S. military presence in the Far East. The criticism, however, was in an extremely low-key and it is significant that no attempt was made to criticise the link before the laying of the cable began, although it was publicly known what the plans
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