How a racing sheet became
THREE years ago a Hongkong journalist who bet on horses backed enough winners to buy a share in a newspaper,
He registered his purchase in his wife's name and went right on working and bet- ting.
Today, the reporter, Pun Wai-wai, 34, and his wife, Chan Yim- kuen, 28, are in separ- ate prison cells.
And while they stay the hopes there
of
freedom for Reuter
correspondent Anthony Grey remain dim.
Nightclubs
Pun and his wife are the 11 jour- among nalists whom Peking insists should be freed before Grey is released from house arrest in the Chinese capital.
They are due for re- lease in September and October this along with
year,
Wong
Chak, 40, a reporter from the Communist Ta Kung newspaper
Pao, originally
sen-
tenced to five years' jail but granted a remis- sion by the Governor, Sir David Trench.
Pun Wai-wai was formerly а dashing man-about-town.
He never missed a race meeting at Happy Valley and liked to celebrate his winning days by entertaining friends at nightclubs.
When his big win arrived Pun looked around for an invest- ment.
Ho surprised more of his friends when he decided to buy an in- terest 'n a racing sheet named Tin Fung Daily. Tin Fung Daily's chief interest was rac- ing.
Virulent
It also devoted space to other sports, like soccer and greyhound racing in Macau.
Then two years ago Tin Fung and two other papers that had owner- ship links with it de- veloped an interest in politics.
They rapidly moved to the Left, becoming more and more anti- British.
established Communist
was prov- newspapers ing quite as virulent as these three.
Police moved in and raided their offices.
Shortly after sum- monses were served on the executives.
When the summonses were ignored police raided the executives' homes and arrested five of them.
were
Among them Pun and his wife.
The others were Wu
32, Tai-chau,
Chak Nuen-fai, 34, and Liu Siu-hung, 44
Other executives and senior journalists from
the queen of hate
court
was adjourned because Hongkong was battening down against an approaching typ- hoon).
Crown Counsel Mr David Wilcox describ- ed Tin Fung as “a gospel of violence, de- picting the queen of hate."
In support of his claim Mr Wilcox pro- duced evidence that the paper had encour- aged terrorists to plant bombs in crowded re- settlement estates.
It has
exhorted
people "to sacrifice their lives if necessary
Last week the last of the 52 Com- munist detainees was released from Victoria Detention Centre · and hopes were renewed for the release of British journalist Anthony Grey. Chinawatch- er Dai Lih-wu takes a fresh look at the Grey case and the individual cases of 11 leftist journalists still jailed.
Daily, flicked the note into the dock.
A police inspector saw this and dived headlong into the dock to retrieve it.
Several police fell on Shum and when the scrimmage cleared he was taken to another
thony Grey being sum- moned to the Foreign Ministry in Peking and informed that his movements would be restricted.
One of them, Lo Yuk- ho, 32, works for the official New China News Agency in Hongkong.
Celebrating the release of Communists from prison. It now looks as if Grey may remain captive till scenes like this are repeated for the last time in the autumn.
the three papers were not in where police raided their homes.
They
believed to have left Hongkong for China or Macau.
are
When Pun and com- pany were brought to trial they faced a total of 99 charges, a mas- sive list that took court officials four days to read. as
At the height of the disturbances the au- thorities regarded Tin Fung Daily and its sister papers, the After- noon News and the Evening News, threats to public secu- rity.
None of the long-
(As soon as the pro- secution finished read- ing the charges the
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to crush the vicious British imperialists and to make them stink."
At the end of the case the Magistrate, Mr Enoch Light, said the court had extended every facility to the five newspaper execu- tives.
But they had sought to confound the issues, "relentlessly and vig- orously in a manner which could not have been excelled by the prince of darkness himself."
As the trial of the five executives drew to a close a reporter at the Press bench was busy writing a note.
Message
It was labelled "A Message from Peking" and it urged the five to protest loudly at their conviction.
re-
On his way out of the courtroom the porter, Shum Fai-lum, 32, of the Commercial
courtroom and charged with two offences passing a note to а prisoner and obstruct- ing police.
He was convicted of both charges and given jail terms of six months on the first of- fence and 18 months on the second.
After remissions for good behaviour he was released on January 4, and was met outside the prison by chanting colleagues who quickly pinned a number of Mao badges to his coat. His release, and that of another journalist a week earlier, leaves 11 newspaper workers still in detention.
Pun and his wife and the other three ex- ecutives are
now due for release next Sep- tember.
So are five journal-
ists
Woman
four men and a who were arrested together with- in a few days of An-
The others are em- ployed by local Com- munist newspapers.
All five of these re- porters were charged with uttering inflam- matory speeches and taking part in an inti- midating assembly.
Story
Their story is that they had gone to the Wangtaunom area "to report truthfully how our patriotic compat- riots were disseminat-
ing the thought of Mao Tse-tung and carrying on the opposition to the national persecution perpetrated by the Bri- tish authorities."
When the work was said, through, they they entered their car and left the scene.
But they were over- taken by two cars and abducted by people who called themselves Bri- tish agents.
Inciting
a
group
seen of
The story the police told was that the five journalists were inciting about 100 school- children who had been assembled at a resettle- ment estate.
When
police
ap-
proached the reporters drove away, but they were later apprehend- ed.
All five were sen- tenced to three years' jail and, with remis- sions, are likely to be released in September.
Anthony Grey pro- bably will be released then, especially after the remission of sen- tence granted Wong Chak.
Heaviest
Wong orginally ap- peared in court in blood-stained clothing and with a head wound in which 20 stitches had been inserted.
The judge, summing up, said Wong had been the leader of an unruly mob which he had led in shouting against the British.
He had drawn a knife on a policeman who tried to arrest him.
In the ensuing struggle Wong and two constables fell down the stairs of a public lavatory where Wong finally was subdued.
Both constables were injured in the struggle. So was Wong, who was taken to hospital and treated before be- ing brought to trial.
With the exception of people who were caught planting bombs, his original sentence of five years was the heaviest imposed dur- ing the disturbances.
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USTERIN
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