2 -
PRO/1040/3.
28
The Wah Kiu Yat Po of July 16 carried a sensational report regard- ing the railway disaster on the Canton-Hankow Railway on July 10, when a bridge collapsed under a train. The bridge was of wooden construction and in a bad state of repair. The train was considerably overloaded with freight as a result of shippers bribing railway officials. Railway police and regular troops, who were supposed to be saving passengers who had been thrown in the river, instead started a gun battle between themselves after quarrelling over the division of loot from the wrecked train.
2.
HONG KONG.
The Wah Kiu Yat Po of July 17 reported that the Chinese Engineers Institute (one of the leading local trade unions) was preparing a third petition for an increase in wages. Two previous petitions had been rejected. The new petition would ask for a 150% increase in basic pay.
The same paper on July 19 expressed concern over the prevalence of violent crime in the New Territories, which it attributed to poverty result- ing from war losses, ease of obtaining arms left behind by the Japanese, shortage of Police personnel and inadequate organisation of village guards. It asked for Government assistance for the rehabilitation of farmers and more co-operation between the Police and the Chinese authorities on the other side of the border.
3.
WORLD AFFAIRS.
Concern was again expressed over the possibility of a Japanese revival. The Kung Sheung Daily Press feared the swamping of Far Eastern markets by the products of Japan's light industries, the Wah Kiu Yat Po protested against MacArthur "monopolising control over Japan", and the Sing Tao Jih Pao doubted the genuinness of Japan's conversion to democracy and considered that a Japan with the same industrial capacity as in 1930 would again be a potential aggressor.
The Hwa Shiang Pao doubted whether the states participating in the Paris Conference would obtain American aid without being subjected to American political domination.
672
J.H.B. Lee,
P.R.O.
JHBL/APC