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é.F. 323
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CONFIDENTIAL
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workers from the Hong Kong Artificial Flower works at San Po Kong were
picketing the factory premises and, ignoring repeated warnings from the
police, they persisted in illegally trying to prevent the removal of goods
by the management. The Police finally intervaled and arrested 21 men.
It
was a minor incident; there was little or no violence and no one was injured.
It was however enough to provoke an immediate reaction; headlines appeared
in the communist newspapers denouncing the Government and accusing the Police,
in the most violent terms, of persecution and of brutally attacking unarmed
workers. The Hong Kong & Kowloon Rubber and Plastics Workers Union whose
chairman was among those arrested published four demands:
(a) The Hong Kong Government must cease its brutality
immediately and ensure that it is not repeated.
(b) All the arrested persons must be released immediately.
(c) Compensation must be paid by Government for all
injuries and damage and those responsible must be
punished.
(d) There must be no Government interference in labour
disputes.
These demands were endorsed by the Hong Kong and Kowloon Federation
of Trade Unions. Meetings were held in pro-communist organisations in support
of the arrested workers and posters began to appear attacking the Government
and protesting against police brutality.
At the San Po Kong factory itself there were further demonstrations,
with processions and the chanting of slogans. These inevitably attracted
crowds of idle spectators as well as hooligans and mischief-makers and, when,
on the 11th of May, communist pickets threatened to break into the factory
and there was a further clash with the Police, there was a mob at hand ripe
for violence. There was serious rioting which spread from the strects in the
vicinity of the factory to adjacent areas of Kowloon and for three days mobs, including many who wore paid to take part battled the Police, attacked and
set fire to 'buses and other vehicles and broke into and looted Government
offices and staff quarters in an orgy of destruction.
A curfew was imposed in
the affected areas during the nights of the 11th, 12th and 13th but it was not
until the 14th that calm was restored. These disturbances were dealt with
firmly by the Police but with the minimum of force; no firearms were used
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CONFIDENTIAL