what was described as a repressive colonial Government was bound to attract wide popular support. There were however other views. There were many in the Colony who had left or escaped from China because they were fundamentally opposed to the principles of communism; there were many others who had little or no interest in ideologies, who were in Hong Kong to earn a living and who wished only for peace and order to be maintained. There was a divergence of views among the professed communists themselves. Hong Kong is of con- siderable economic advantage to China which draws the better part of its much needed foreign currency through the Colony, either in the form of remittances from overseas Chinese or through the sale of produce exported to Hong Kong and transhipped in its port. The moderate communist view was that, while in revolutionary theory the Colony was an affront to the Chinese people, the valuable benefits it provided to China (and no doubt to themselves) should not in practice be jeopardized.
4. The basic aims of both factions, so far as they have been formu- lated, are probably similar: to force the Government into a position of subservience to communist domination. But while the moderates, dragged unwillingly into the struggle, would wish to see this achieved by peaceful means that would not affect the continuing prosperity of Hong Kong, the extremists were prepared to go to any lengths to achieve this result even if it meant the destruction of the Colony as such and its integration with China.
5. This dichotomy of views was apparent in the direction of con- frontation which fluctuated between comparatively peaceful demonstra- tions and outright violence as the attitude of one or other of the factions prevailed. It was also apparent that neither the more moderate communists in Hong Kong nor the Chinese Peoples Government, dis- tracted as it has been by its own internal disorders, were able, or willing, to restrain or control the extremist element.
6. Despite their expectations of mass support, those who took an active part in confrontation remained a tiny minority of the popula- tion. It was not a popular movement and, after what may be described as the first flush of enthusiasm, the numbers of those supporting the cause progressively dwindled. The events described in this report, which may give the impression of wide-spread disorders, were organized by a comparative handful of men and women who, by the payment of bribes to hooligans, by intimidation and by 'strike pay' to workers, created an
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