13 -
What converted them to the communist cause?
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pproached Stanley with some trepidation fearful
the prisoners might prove belligerent (unco-
ve at best) and that they would utter nothing but
slogans. I was warned beforehand of their unree ning dedication and their suspicion of outsiders. Happil most of these fears proved unfounded.
I was able
e many prisoners and conduct fairly "deep" intervine with 10 of them - most of them young. Each interview lasted for at least two hours and some ran to three. All of them were friendly and, in fact, quite happy to have the chance to preach their gospel to me.
Although they were at first suspicious, some sort of vague rapport was established. The tone and attitude I adopted was sympathetic but politically neutral, but I made no attempt to hide the purpose of my visit. As the Review played some role in the ideological confrontation last year and was itself under attack by the communist press, its name rang a bell.
But the echo produced no hostility.
"Of course, they were not willing to answer every question. Their lips remained sealed on matters con- cerning their organisation, the structure of the local communist party and how they were mobilised. When asked about their organisation, one man said: "I do not know. But even if I know, I would not tell you, even if I were beaten to death." On how they were mobilised, another prisoner explained: "There was no mobilisation. We organised and mobilised ourselves. We saw fellow Chinese being beaten up unreasonably by the police so we rose up to struggle. We discussed Mao's thoughts amongst ourselves and decided on a course of action. And we got on with it." The most detailed comment on the communist organisation and the chain of command was: "The top crder comes from the motherland. It is passed down to the shops, the ban s. and the unions. From them, it is transmitted to district organisations. Each of these is in charge of a district like Happy Valley or Causeway Bay. there are sub-divisions (cells?) of four to five men each." When questioned about the local communist affairs, most prisoners would say little or nothing. One commented: "People have said that the local communists are divided into Maoists and anti-Maoists. This is absolute nonsense." I asked another prisoner, a reporter from Ta Kung Pao about the alleged capitalist tendencies of Mr Fei Yei Ming, to which he replied bluntly: "We only know him as the editor of Ta Kung Pao."
Then
"The dedication and good discipline of the communist prisoners is very evident. In one of the workshops, several of them surrounded me. One man said: "Don't talk to him. He cannot solve any problems." But he was told to shut up and I was allowed to proceed with my questions. Whenever a prisoner tried to interrupt me, he would be hushed up by the rest. I found their orderly conduct and politeness surprising. In the course of individual interviews, their discipline and good manners were even more astonishing. They rarely made use of the jargon phrases such as "fascist beasts" or "running dogs". Instead they used polite terms such as "those in authority", "those holding power". Further, they often began an answer to a question with careful provisos like: "This is my own view only; It might not be right" or "According to my own observations ....." In spite of this apparent tentativeness, they went on to make ultra