REVIEW
7
The battle was deafening and caused considerable amusement to the onlookers, but it ended in the defeat of the communists who were unable to make any further effective use of this weapon.
The tactics employed by the communists up to the major incident on May 22 had not attracted any noticeable increase in support for confrontation and the attempts to make political capital out of the clash on that day met with little success. Indeed the feeling of the majority of the population was made clear by a number of public expressions of support for the government. A group of businessmen in the Colony set up a fund for the higher education of the children of police officers, which attracted support and donations from thousands of individuals. In a fortnight it reached a total of $3 million, an extraordinary acknowledgement by the people of Hong Kong of the debt that they owed the police.
The Hong Kong Federation of Students, as well as kaifong associations and leading members of the community, publicly expressed their loyalty and confidence in the government. This lead was followed by similar expressions of support from numerous organizations representing a complete cross-section of the Colony and ranging from hawker associations to professional associations and business houses. They included clansmen and district_asso- ciations, multi-storey building management associations, religious organizations and social organizations of almost every kind. In all some 620 letters, petitions and statements of support were received and, while it is difficult to estimate the total number of people they represented, the Hong Kong Buddhist Association and the kaifong associations between them claimed membership of well over a million people. In a political situation of such gravity, where many factors might lead people not to express an opinion, such massive support for law and order was particularly impressive.
There is no doubt that it also affected communist strategy as the tactics of street demonstrations and provocation did not continue on May 23. The campaign then entered a new phase; slogans were painted on the walls of public buildings and there was a rash of inflammatory posters. At the same time a series of token stoppages was engineered affecting transport, including the cross harbour ferries, the port and the dock companies and the main utility and service organizations. These stoppages had a certain