statement or protest from the Peking Government or any article in the People's Daily that seemed, or could be made to seem, to support this possibility was given prominent treatment, with banner headlines and extra editions. By the end of July, the tone of the communist press was changing. Its shrill abuse of the Government continued and its exhortations to violence were, if anything, more extreme. But it began to speak increasingly of a long hard struggle ahead and pronouncements from Peking were given only routine treatment. While the protest after the events of 8th July at Sha Tau Kok was followed, at the prompting of the communist press, by widespread violence in the Colony, the ultimatum issued by Peking on 20th August and the subsequent attack on the office of the Chargé d'Affaires passed almost unnoticed in Hong Kong. After the suspension of the three newspapers, a mosquito newsheet campaign began. The newsheets were poorly produced but highly inflammatory and subversive. At first they were distributed widely but the campaign quickly lost its momentum and had died out completely by the end of the year, without achieving anything significant.
169. In December the cessation of bomb attacks was reflected in the tone of the communist press, which changed in its attacks on the Government from violent abuse to the appearance of reasoned argu- ments, accompanied by less violent tirades on topics which were likely to appeal to the public at large. During the last weeks of the year the communist newspapers devoted considerable space to two topics, the salinity of the water and the effects on the people of the adjustment of the Hong Kong dollar that followed the devaluation of sterling by Great Britain. Both these themes were of popular interest and concern. The water, though it was harmless, had a strong taste and it was not difficult to persuade the public that it was the cause of any disease from which they might be suffering. The arguments for and against devalua- tion were generally unintelligible to the layman but there were natural reactions to the communist insinuation that, for its own nefarious purposes, the Government had reduced the buying power of the dollar and robbed the poor of their savings.
170. It remains to be seen whether this new trend will be main- tained. It is however probable that confrontation will continue in one form or another and that propaganda, whether overt and violent or, as at the end of the year, more devious and insidious, will continue to be one of its main weapons.
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