Foreign Office and Commonwealth Office Guidance No. 217
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continued to publish in defiance of the Order and on 20 August the police raided their premises. There was no resistance and several persons were held for questioning and later released the same day. Proceedings against the five accused on thirty charges including that of sedition are continuing at the time of writing.
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In addition to the above action against Communist news- papers, various reporters have, over a period, been convicted of criminal offences. Two men (one of them a locally engaged employee of the New China News Agency - i.e. an official C.P.G. organization) are now serving sentences of two years imprisonment and proceedings have been instituted against five reporters (one of whom is of the N.C.N.A.).
6. Two civil actions against other Communist newspapers have been initiated by solicitors' letters demanding retraction and apology but the reaction of the papers concerned has so far been one of defiance.
FO/CO/WH DISTRIBUTION J.I.P.G.D.