1.
Morale of
N.T. people to-day.
2.
Red
Influence
154
THE NEW TERRITORIES, September - November, 1945.
Mid-August, 1945, found the people or the New Territories imbued with new cynicism (presumably common to all peoples or occupied countries) remarkably more critical, but with the same old oaken core to their characters, morally still comparatively stout, not so shaken as the townspeople.
4.
During the interval between the cessation of hostilities and the British re-occupation, local Self- Protection Corps, armed only with, e.g., long poles, were formed in most market-towns to maintain order. That, for the most part, order was maintained was, however, largely due to the good sense or the people, and probably to ɩne restraining influence or the Reds, parties of whom remained in various places under good discipline and instructions from their East River Branch. The influence of the Reds is another legacy of the war: though they have probably sent most of their arms out of the Colony, and have no present intention of using armed force for uneir own ends, they have left benind political nuclei to see that the good work (as they see it) which they did is not undone. During the later stages of the Japanese occupation they attempted, with some success, to prevent landlords from taking what was by Red standards an excessive proportion of narvests from tenants. Young people particularly tend to sym- pathise with the Reds.
The New Territories were only re-occupied by stages: first the parts of the mainland easily accessible by road, then the outlying parts, and finally the islands. The occupation, for instance, or Lantau, and of Peng Cnow in Mirs Bay, being only completed about the third week in November. The people, whom the Japanese occupa- tion has made more self-reliant than ever, and who are tired of the sight of uniform, looked coldly at first on the occupying forces, but were gradually won over, chiefly by the medical aid afforded them daily at nearly every post.
Among Government's first acts was the appointment in the main market-towns of agents, always established rice-dealers, for the sale of Government rice at the controlled prices. This has been almost uniformly abused: by unequal distribution by the agents and by sales to buyers from China. It appears, however, that these rackets have been mild compared with the correspond- ing activity in Kowloon and Hong Kong, and that the imminence of the possibility or unrestricted dealings in rice renders untimely a plan whereby Government rice would be sold from Government saops, selling nothing else.
Parallel with the distribution of Government rice in the early stages went the distribution of free rice to the truly needy. This was handled by the Tung Wah Hospital through locally appointed agents, who acted for the most part with a fair degree of public spirit. The rice was issued cooked to the indigent inhabitants of the market-towns and nearby villages, and uncooked to the needier inhabitants of outlying villages.
3.
British
Re-occupa-
tion.
Government Rice.
5.
Free Rice.
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