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supporting them. This has failed; and although the Communist newspapers have been largely discredited and rejected by public opinion, it was considered essential, if public confidence was to be maintained, that
some action against them should be taken if only to show that the
Government was not afraid to tackle the Communist Press. The three
newspapers against which action was taken were minor independently-owned
pro-Communist organs. They were deliberately selected in an attempt to
minimise the danger of reaction in Peking. No action has been taken as yet against the main C.P.G.-owned or backed newspapers.
6. The suspension of the three newspapers has been followed by the
appearance of single sheet "mosquito" broadsheets reproducing items
from the main newspapers. They have been widely distributed free of
charge. At first little importance was attached by the Hong Kong authorities to their circulation. They have, however, subsequently
been used to indicate targets for assassination and to issue terrorist
warnings. On the 28th August, six prominent persons (including two
Chinese unofficial members of the Executive Council; the Chinese Acting Secretary for Chinese Affairs; an Editor and a Publisher of the anti- Communist Press) were named as targets for assassination; on the same
day a small warning parcel bomb was posted to one of the Executive Councillors (the bomb was detected and safely dealt with). This
development has necessarily completely changed the attitude of the
Hong Kong authorities towards the broadsheets and the Governor considers
that action must be taken to deal with them in order to maintain public
confidence in the ability of the Hong Kong Government to control the
situation and to prevent an excess of confidence on the part of the Communists (of which there are some indications) because of any apparent
weakness in that control.
7. There appear to be two courses open to us, namely:-
(a) to introduce comprehensive emergency regulations giving
full power to deal with the Press generally.
(b) To introduce emergency regulations giving power to deal
specifically and solely with the broadsheets.
We asked Hong Kong to consider these (our telegram No.1840).
8. The primary considerations to be borne in mind in deciding which
course of action to follow are, on the one hand, the need of the Hong
Kong authorities to preserve public confidence and to control the
situation in the Colony and, on the other hand, the danger of provoking
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