extent Wong Tai Sin Resettlement Estates. These estates, built to re- house squatters, are densely populated and provided a natural rallying point for the rioters. Police action is difficult. They are hampered by the attendant crowds while the multiplicity and height of the buildings make them easy targets for bottles and other missiles. A large and hostile crowd had entrenched itself at the Tung Tau Estate and it was only after cordoning off the centre of resistance and firing several tear gas shells that the Police were able to subdue it.
22. By 10.30 p.m. the whole area covered by the curfew was generally quiet although there were some isolated incidents during the night.
23. The next morning, the 12th May, there was an uneasy calm. Some anxiety was caused by the assembly of a group of textile workers outside a communist-owned cinema and another group demonstrated briefly outside the Green Island Cement Company's premises at Hung Hom, the scene of another dispute; but they both dispersed without incident. One or two groups of children jeered at the Police and threw a few stones. During these days there were large numbers of children about, either alone or mingled with the crowds, and they were a constant source of provocation. Whenever possible the Police took no action against them and did their best to ignore them.
24. Soon after noon, as workers in the factories in the San Po Kong area came out for their lunch break, crowds again began to build up in Choi Hung Road. There was no incident to set off the crowd but, possibly incited by the communist agitators among them, they threw stones and bottles at the Police and a general melee ensued. Crowds continued to gather and by 1.30 p.m. the Police were faced by a mob of about 3,000 persons in Choi Hung Road while gangs of youths armed with iron bars were attempting to break into shops in the vicinity. The Police again set up road blocks and had some success in breaking up the crowds by the use of tear gas; but as on the previous day the crowds dis- persed only to reform again and there was renewed violence for the rest of the afternoon and evening. The rioting was confined to the same area as on the previous day, but within this area there were serious disorders. Buses were attacked and set on fire. Traffic signs were pulled down. Private cars were overturned and burnt. The Police were attacked with stones, bottles and iron bars. The resettlement estates were again the centres of the disorder; the resettlement staff quarters at Wong Tai Sin were broken into and looted, and fires were started at Tung Tau.
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