ducing artificial flowers. The course of events was similar in each case. A real or imagined source of grievance, seldom if ever connected with a genuine cause of industrial dispute, was seized upon and exaggerated, political issues were introduced and a series of demands were made that must be accepted 'unconditionally'. Non-communist workers were intimidated and demonstrations were mounted in which groups of com- munists, waving banners and chanting slogans, attempted to overawe their employers by a show of strength.
11. There had been no general deterioration of labour relations at this time and the unrest that was created in these few undertakings was not symptomatic of a general malaise. Its effect moreover was magnified by the noisy demonstrations and the increasingly truculent behaviour of those taking part. They regarded themselves as above authority. They declared that the Police had no right to interfere with their processions; any assistance offered by the Labour Department in settling the disputes was dismissed as 'unwarranted meddling'; when a press photographer took a picture of a procession it was demanded, as of right, that his camera be confiscated.
12. There is no evidence that these outbreaks were co-ordinated or that they formed part of a concerted plan to challenge the Govern- ment; it is more probable that they arose spontaneously as a natural result of the political indoctrination to which the workers concerned had been subjected. It is also probable that the communist leadership in the Colony foresaw the violence to which these actions tended to lead but were unable to exercise sufficient control to prevent them.
13. While all these disputes were potentially explosive, it was the one at the Hong Kong Artificial Flower Works that produced the actual spark. This company has a factory at Belcher Street, in Hong Kong Island, employing a staff of 421 and another at San Po Kong in Kowloon with 686 employees. On 13th April 1967 the manage- ment of the company introduced new conditions concerning discipline and rates of pay which affected only the injection moulding section. A series of meetings was arranged between the management and representatives of the employees to discuss the reason for the changes and their implications. After three meetings, which were unproductive, a small but influential group of employees, members of the communist- dominated Hong Kong & Kowloon Rubber and Plastic Workers Union, issued five demands relating to the rates for piece work, the allocation of moulds and the rates to be paid when a worker was idle because of
4