2600027 C.S. 20A
From the Governor, Hong Kong
To the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Repeated to:—
Repeated to:-
P
Date..........
My Reference..
3
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SAVINGRAM
Your Reference...
No.
1516
No.
No.
(k) In Hong Kong's densely crowded conditions, large
crowds gather in a matter of moments.
Once a crowd has gathered, troublemakers or hooligans, if they did not actually cause the crowd to gather by their activities, quickly cash in on its presence to stir up disorder, and are emboldened by the mere presence of the crowd even though some of those present do not take any active part beyond remaining with the crowd as it moves along. Disorder develops rapidly, others join in and the task of the Police Force in controlling disturbances is greatly increased. In addition, the crowds move rapidly and often fragment into a number of smaller disorderly crowds, especially on the intervention of the police. In this way, a whole area quickly becomes the scene of disorder.
In these circumstances, where the situation is extremely fluid and changes from moment to moment, it is sometimes difficult to establish any common purpose and it is not always possible to show that a particular person was taking part in any particular disorder for which a crowd is responsible though he undoubtedly formed part of the unruly mob when arrested. Accordingly, after most careful consideration, it is considered essential to modify the common law relating to unlawful assembly and riot. The first object of the modification is to dispense with the element of common purpose and the second object is to provide that anyone forming part of or joining an unlawful assembly or riot is guilty of that offence. Clauses 18 and 19 provide accordingly.
(1) Clauses 22, 23 and 24 of the first draft have been
omitted because they are not considered either appropriate or practical for Hong Kong.
(m) Intimidation is one of the weapons much used by the communists during the current disturbances. Many of the things done or said by way of intimidation did not fall within the existing law, and accordingly the Emergency (Prevention of Intimidation) Regulations 1967 were introduced on 24th June. It is considered that the substance of those Regulations should be part of the permanent law
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