6
REVIEW
applied; the blood of those who had really been injured was liberally daubed on others. The results of these childish expedients were duly photographed by the communist press and subsequently published as evidence of police brutality, though what little effect this might have had was spoiled by the crowds of witnesses looking on from the Hilton Hotel, as well as by the full coverage of the scene by impartial press and television cameramen.
Further demonstrators appeared during the day and some buses and taxis were abandoned in the area, in an attempt to cause traffic jams and to add to the confusion. There was intermit- tent violence in Queen's Road and the adjoining streets and at 6.30 p.m., for the first time since the war, a curfew was imposed on Hong Kong Island.
It soon became apparent that anti-government propaganda and the spreading of false and malicious rumours was to be a major weapon in the communists' tactics. Communist newspapers published highly distorted accounts of the events that were taking place, designed to present the police and government in the worst possible light, and accompanied, as in the case of the disturbances of May 22, by contrived or unashamedly faked photographs. Rumours were fabricated with the intention of spreading confusion and panic; some plausible and more difficult to combat, others too improbable to deceive even the most credulous.
To a large extent these propaganda efforts were most effectively countered by the reports of the non-communist press, as well as by the Colony's wireless and television services that produced a steady stream of factual reports and pictures. Further counter- measures were taken by government departments and by the Department of Information Services in particular, which took immediate steps to keep the public constantly informed of the true state of affairs by wireless broadcasts, press releases, short films that were distributed to all cinemas, and, where necessary and practicable, by word of mouth.
Additional, and unusual, publicity methods were brought into use. The loudspeakers at the Bank of China building were countered by setting up rival and more powerful loudspeakers at buildings in the vicinity which regaled the public with the music of Cantonese opera and effectively drowned the stream of communist propaganda.
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