Nonsense
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Report No......HK...113...
Continuation No....
1
booked their airline tickets for Taiwan, while money poured out of the Colony in the same direction.
But now, outwardly at least, Hong Kong is peaceful and not only peaceful, but prosperous. Business in the stores expect for those run by the communists, has set new records. Just to see the way people are dressed and the goods they're buying is to realise that despite its troubles, the Colony's Of course, economic miracle has continued almost unchecked. there is still poverty, plenty of it, and gross inequalities. But wages have risen by 80% in the past seven years and it shows. Perhaps that was the fkrst of many communist mistakes. They rocked the boat just at the moment when the mass of the people here had begun to taste the rewards of a decade of struggle. And so, not out of any loyalty, but out of solid self-interest, which is a much more reliable emotion, the population backed the Government. Almost everyone for a change had a good word to say for the police and British officials congratulate themselves on weathering the storm.
Since the strikes fizzled out, public transport has returned to normal, with only the wire grilles around the drivers' cabs on the trams as a reminder that a few weeks ago, hundreds of bombs were being scattered through the Colony every day. Although bomb disposal crews still stand by twenty-four hours a day, calls on their services are diminishing and, in most cases, the bizarre collection of tin cans, bags and bottles, either fail to explode or are found to contain nothing more dangerous than sand and scraps
of old iron.
But as the violence diminishes, there is some evidence that the Hong Kong communist hierarchy is beginning to learn from its past mistakes. Today, the bright red banners bear
a different message.
Bombs failed to win them friends but