P.R.O.
TELEPHONES :
ASSISTANT P.R.O.
GENERAL OFFICE.
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HONG KONG GOVERNMENT
PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE
OFFICES:
33
6E, CLOUCESTER ARCADE
Date:
3rd July, 1947.
1.
CHINA.
Oregon 96009/15/47
Ref: PRO/1004/3.
WEEKLY SUMMARY OF HONG KONG PRESS REPORTS AND COMMENTS
•
June 22 28, 1947.
Anti-Russian feeling continued to be the keynote of the pro- Kuomintang newspapers. On June 22, Dr. Sun Fo made a statement attacking Russia on the grounds that she was supporting the Chinese Communists, had prevented the Chinese Government from taking over Dairen and Port Arthur and had instigated the Outer Mongolian invasion of Sinkiang. The statement went on, in effect, to appeal to America for direct aid to the Chinese National Government. This statement was given much prominence.
The pro- Communist Hwa Shiang Pao featured a commentary by Marshal Li Chai-sum (who is regarded as the leader of the left wing of the Kuomintang and is now resident in Hong Kong) on Sun Fo's statement. Li Chai-sum accused Sun Fo of attempting to sell out the country to America and of seeking to prolong the civil war, which would result in foreign intervention.
The Sing Tao Jih Pao of June 25 quoted Wu Hsin-tsz, leader of the National Democratic Socialists, as declining to comment on Sun Fo's statement, but instead appealing to the Kuomintang and Communists to get together and form a coalition government, with Chiang Kai-shek as impartial head of the state.
There continued to be references to the "Sinkiang incident" but this was still a noticeable lack of details as to what had actually happened.
There was some comment on the suggested American $500,000,000 loan to China. The Kung Sheung Yat Po of June 25 was of the opinion that China would do better to carry on without a foreign loan. The Wah Kiu Yat Po expressed a fear that the loan would be conditional on China relaxing her import restrictions and foreign exchange control, thus opening the country to a flood of American products which would ruin China's own industries.
The gist of an article by one Huang Shih-ying in the Wah Kiu Yat Po of June 27 was that the civil war was the result of rivalry between America and Russia, and that a united China could remain neutral in the "almost inevitable" World War III and let America and Russia fight it out elsewhere.