CHINESE PRESS
AGITATION
British Complaint
The Foreign Office last night issued the text of a note sent to the Chinese Ambassador in London on January 24 on the subject of the recent rioting
the following
British
of eviction squatters from the former walled city of Kowloon in the British colony of Hong-Kong.
The note points out that except for the period of the Japanese occupation the
had Government Hong-Kong exercised sole jurisdiction over the six and a half acres in question uninter- ruptedly from 1899 to the present day. The area was a disordered cluster of overcrowded wooden huts, without proper sanitary arrangements," presented a grave danger to health and a serious risk of fire. The Hong-Kong Government was fully justified in clear- ing the area.
and
The note condemns the "exaggerated and misleading reports " in some sections of the Chinese language press in Hong- Kong and in China, "which for weeks past had been sedulously fanning the The spark of anti-British agitation." Chinese Government is asked to take steps to ensure that the facts of the case are placed before the public in China. "If this is done it is felt that a satisfactory solution will readily be found, and the friendly relations existing between, the two countries thereby strengthened."
378
Manchester Guardian
23 J. 1941
Me Wall: 11/575 petize
Dan Bedford