Extract from SUMMARY OF WORLD BROADCASTS
PART V. THE FAR EAST
No. 145. 29th January, 1952.
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Warning by Chinese Foreign Ministry
CONSEQUENCES OF BRITISH SUBSERVIENCE TO AMERICAN POLICY. On 25th January the NCNA circulated a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry of the Central People's Government (22.33, 25. 1. 52). The text of this pronouncement was not clearly received at the time of writing but it appeared that it was based on a report from the Kwangtung Provincial Govern- ment about the arrest of cinema workers on 10th January. The British Police was said to have stated that "the Hongkong Government can arrest you whenever it pleases"; the arrested men had been deported soon after being taken to police headquarters without having time to speak to their families or take any clothing or other necessities with them. "On the same day or later" other cinema workers and representatives of the refugees from the Tungton fire had been "arrested and deported". The statement referred to the "mysterious fire" which had broken out in the village on 21st November, 1951 and had made homeless over 16,000 "Chinese residents", complaining that the British authorities "not only refused to provide relief for the refugees but had sent large numbers of troops and police to surround (?the village) and arrest many of the refugees". Subsequently those elected by the villagers to negotiate on their behalf with the British authorities had been persecuted. The statement referred to another report from the Kwangtung Government that the Hongkong authorities had allowed "groups of bandits led by Hsiao Tien-wai and other Chiang Kai-shek....(words missing) to sneak into our territory from the (words missing) of the Hongkong and Kowloon area, disturb civilians, steal their property, plant explosives and distribute reactionary leaflets". It went on to say: "The Chinese people in the area of Hongkong and Kowloon and in all other parts of the country have expressed the great indignation concerning this (?series) of persecutions and provocations by the British authorities in Hongkong". The Foreign Ministry of the Central People's Government refused to regard these events as (?isolated) incidents but considered them as a consequence of the "United Kingdom's hostile policy towards the Feople's Republic of China which is the outcome of the Churchill Cabinet's (?surrender) to the U.S.A. under the (?American) Government's increasing pressure on the British Government. The Ministry of Foreign.
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Affairs of the Central People's Government hereby lodges a (words missing) protest with the Government of the United Kingdom concerning the above-mentioned incidents and demands that it immediately stop their atrocities .. (words missing) of Chinese (words missing) and open provocations against the People's Republic of China .... (words missing). The British Government will have to bear the full responsibility for all the consequences.
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Pastimes
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-2 FEB 1952
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Page PERING ATTACKS
ON HONGKONG
CHANGED SITUATION
FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT
HONGKONG, FEB. 1
The outburst of attacks against Hong- kong over the recent deportations, which culminated last week in a protest from the Foreign Ministry in Peking, may now be expected to die down after Mr. Churchill's statement in the House of Commons on Wednesday.
The position of Hongkong is, as the South China Morning Post points out to-day, ex- tremely delicate, as the intention is to avoid political agitation from either side. There has naturally been no comment in the mainland. Communist Press on the action taken against Kuomintang political activity here. Attacks on Hongkong by less responsible elements in the United States are often, as the newspaper points out, as wild and mistaken as those from Peking. The Foreign Ministry protest made guarded reference to the planning" by the British authorities in Hongkong "of other! similar acts of persecution and terror against the Chinese population which would seem to be an attempt to prove the degree of truth or falsehood in its own assumption that events in Hongkong were not merely of local import-; ance," but were a serious new develop- ment in the United Kingdom's hostile policy. which was the outcome of the Churchill Cabinet's further submission to the United States.".
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The People's Daily, commenting on Mr. Churchill's speech to Congress, tried to prove there was complete British support for Ameri- can Far Eastern policy; Mr. Churchill, the newspaper said, had openly declared his friendship for the Kuomintang bandit remnants in Formosa, in spite of the fact that the representative of the British Government is in Peking negotiating for the establishment of diplomatic relations with the People's Government."
Comment in the Chinese Press here-apart from that of the extreme right Kuomintang- clearly recognizes the British position in con- nexion with the Korean war. A near-Com- munist evening newspaper, in commenting to- day on Mr. Churchill's statement, emphasized his distaste for entanglement in a war with China, and this may be taken as the accepted view in Peking, whatever may be the blasts of propaganda from semi-Government organi- zations which insist that" British imperialists are trying to transform Hongkong into an outpost for the invasion of China.'
A broadcast from Peking this morning takes the same line, though there is a reference to "the British people's desire for friendship with the Chinese people." It is hardly likely that a serious attempt would be made to exploit the economic situation in Hongkong, for which even the Communist Press has not tried to blame British policy. There have been few attacks on Hongkong during the past year, and the trouble of the last few weeks with the unions-some of whose leaders were among those deported--is unlikely to be pressed at this stage.
MR. Sidebottana
Me-Habb.
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