SECRET
GUARD
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2.
It is safe to assume that these
and the China Resources Company.
agencies contain party members and one or more of them may contain an internal party organisation. In any case, these and other Communist- controlled agencies are in a position to exercise pressure on local business men with China connexions.
6.
Labour relations are the most important field of overt Communist activity in the Colony and the Communist-dominated Federation of Trade Unions occupies the centre of this field. Its affiliated unions control labour in most of the essential services (transport, electricity and gas, telecommunications, food supplies and docks) and among them is the largest union in the Colony, the Hong Kong Seamen's Union, with a claimed membership of 19,500. Of the approximate total of 28,500 workers employed in the principal public utilities, apart from shipping, about 13,500 are members of left-wing labour unions.
7.
The Communists have also succeeded in penetrating to some extent a large number of Government departments, (about 3,700 members of left-wing unions out of a total labour force of 17,900) and in a few, such as the Fire Brigade, the Marine Department and the Post Office, they now control the majority of lower grade employees.
They have also succeeded in penetrating to a considerable extent the Royal Naval Dockyard (about 2,260 members of left-wing unions out of a total of 6,570) and to a lesser extent other military establishments in the Colony.
8*
Major Communist efforts have also been made to gain control of, or to penetrate, educational institutions. Of 1,200 schools in the Colony, 86 are at present known to be either Communist-controlled or penetrated in varying degrees. Although in the past year or so the Communists have suffered some setback in the extension of their influence in this sphere, they have consolidated their position in those schools controlled by them.
9.
Communist propaganda aimed at Hong Kong is directed primarily to young people and manual workers. Strong appeals are made to nationalist feelings and emphasis is placed on the great strides being made in China's reconstruction and on the place of China as a world power won by the CPG for Chinese everywhere. The Communists control three major daily newspapers in Hong Kong with a circulation of about 50,000. They are well produced and their price is considerably lower than that of the majority of local papers.
10.
LIKELY COMMUNIST ACTION
In the event of the CPG deciding to apply pressure on the Colony, their action would, no doubt, include terrorism, sabotage and the fomenting of strikes, with the aim both of disrupting the admin- istration and the maintenance of essential services and of interfering with supplies etc. being brought in from elsewhere.
11.
Their most powerful weapon would be the FTU, which, by the fomenting of strikes and by sabotage and terrorism through its affiliates, would be in a position seriously to interfere with the essential services mentioned in paragraph 6 above.
12.
Although exact figures are not available, there is known to be a large number of Communist Youth Corps members in the Colony and these, with followers from the Communist-controlled schools and their teachers, would, no doubt, be used either actively to assist in the activities mentioned above, or to create alarm and confusion among the population. The Communist newspapers referred to in paragraph 9 above would almost certainly be used to put over the Communist line and to Page 54 ofgase dissension.
This, however, could be countered by the early suppression of the papers concerned under emergency regulations."
/13.
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*