TOP SECRET
87
+
EXTRACT FROM REPORT FOR DECEMBER, 1946 FROM A SECRET SOURCE
to
+
(a) Political and Subversive Movements.
1. General.
It will be recalled that considerable agitation was
developed in November as a result of the death on 26 October 46
of a hawker during a Police raid. The constable was brought to
trial and charged with manslaughter, but as the evidence was
slender the case against him was dismissed and subsequently
disciplinary action was taken against him by the police. The
controversy has since very much died down and the Press in
Hong Kong have avoided any violent criticism of the decision
of the Court in case they should render themselves liable to a
charge of contempt. Previously, definite evidence had been
obtained by the Press Attache in Canton that the agitation
created as a result of the incident was deliberately inspired
by the Kuomintang. The matter was taken up with the Chinese
Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the British Embassy in Nanking
and the M.F.A. made no attempt to defend the action of the
Kuomintang and undertook to take the matter up with the K.M.T.
authorities.
Another incident occurred on 3rd December 46 at Shumchun,
which is on the Họng Kong frontier. A British guard was turned
out to control the crowd which gathered near the frontier post
and one of the guard accidentally fired a shot which killed
a Chinese on Chinese territory. The British military authorities
accepted responsibility for the incident and compensation was
offered to the relatives of the deceased. However this incident
once more was seized upon by trouble-makers to institute a
campaign against the British authorities, and the National Times,
which is a Kuomintang organ, demanded (a) that the soldier
responsible for firing the shot should be handed over to the
Chinese authorities for trial, (b) British troops should be
withdrawn
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