REVIEW
5
were mounted on the Bank of China building, in the centre of the banking and business area of Hong Kong, which encouraged the demonstrators forming up in the vicinity with a stream of violently provocative propaganda, including vicious personal attacks on the Governor.
Propaganda was broadcast from other communist buildings in Hong Kong and Kowloon; the press campaign increased in violence; and there was an outbreak of rioting in Kowloon in the vicinity of the Magistrates Court where cases against those arrested at San Po Kong were being heard.
On May 20 it was announced by the government that while it was not proposed to revoke the right of-any person to present a petition to the Governor, this must be done in an orderly manner. No further processions would be allowed and delegations wishing to present petitions must not exceed 20 people.
This decision was challenged on the following morning when organized groups of communists formed up at the bottom of Garden Road and demanded to be allowed to pass through the police cordon on their way to Government House. Permission was refused and there were a number of scuffles in the vicinity. The crowd, which had grown to more than a thousand, was dispersed by tear gas and by the early evening the situation was quiet.
On May 22 the communists returned to the attack and it soon became clear that they had planned a propaganda 'incident'. Groups of people again formed up in Garden Road and the police were again subjected to a barrage of heckling and abuse. Crowds were building up in nearby Statue Square and the loudspeakers at the Bank of China boomed out a continual stream of threats and appeals to violence. In this daunting atmosphere the police quietly stood their ground and in an impressive display of discipline ignored both the verbal provocation to which they were subjected, as well as the threatening gestures of the mob that faced them. But the communists were out to provoke violence. A constable was kicked and others were attacked. The police moved forward to arrest the man responsible. There was a general melée and the police used their batons. At once many of the demonstrators fell to the ground whether they had been hit or not; bandages (some of them already provided with artificial 'bloodstains') were produced and