1532 Wt18027/5526 100m 7/50 F A Gp58
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Mr...
Mr.
Anderson
3/3.
Sidebotham 33
shi coape 3/3
Mr.
Mr.......
DRAFT
PRIVATE NOTICE QUESTION.
SUGGESTED REPLY.
Last year
In Novecha lave
Year a fire K
FURTHER ACTION
Permt U.S. of S.
Parly. U.S. S.
Minister of State
Secretary of State
Your Reference........
Page 54
sla
Mr. John Dugdale (Labour) to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he has any statement to make on the recent disturbances in Hong Kong.
Yes Sn. I welcome the
make a statement on
I am glad of this opportunity to supplement/the
the disturbance
reports of the riots in Hong Kong last Saturday, which were
ginu omaa
pot in all
the published reports were
accurate.
Jon th
the 23 November
exaggerated.
broke out in Tung
Tao village, an area just east of Kowloon day, and some
10,000 persons were made homeless. The Hong Kong
Na housless
Government took immediate steps to resettle these people,
A few weeks aps Afand
but for propaganda purposes a group of people from Canton,
styling themselves the Comfort Mission, proposed to visit
the Colony and distribute aid to the "Tung Tao Village Fire
These persons have made unofficial approaches
Victims".
to ascertain whether they could enter Hong Kong and were
told that permission would not be given for the Mission
as such to enter the Colony. On the 27th February
enquiries were made whether representatives of the donors
of money collected in Canton, as distinct from a
Somfort
Mission, would be allowed entry the next day. The se
enquiries were answered to the effect that if written
application were made and a programme submitted, considera-
Hal tion would be given to the request, but any visit could
not take place before the 9th March.
the
This was the
position on the night of Friday, 29th February.
On the morning of Saturday the Hong Kong Government
Page 54
Page 54
/learnt
learnt that the Chinese Chamber of Commerce had heard
by telephone from Canton that the proposed visit of the
Comfort Mission was postponed. It is understood that
this information was passed to the Federation of Trades
Unions, but it seems that the rank and file of these
Unions continued in ignorance of the true position ad,
Comtacula
therefore, A large crowd assembled at Kowloon railway
station to greet the 3 p.m. train on which they had been
Para In the
led to expect that the Mission would arrive.
meantime, a welcome party had set out for the border but
as they did not possess passes for the frontier zone