48
SAVING RAM
To the Seerotary of State for the Colonies.
From the Governor of Hong Kong.
Date:
17th
November, 1948.
SECRET
No: 100.
Reptd To:
British Embassy NANKING (NO: 63. ) British Consulate- General
CANTON (NO: 73.) Commissioner-General, S. E. A. (NO: 21 ) G.O.C., Hong Kong
Follow ng is a political report for Hong Kong for the two weeks ending November 15th, 1948.
Politically Hong Kong is quiet whilst the Chinese follow anxiously the course of the Civil War in China. is that Chiang Kai-shek should go, but his battle cry to the nation
The prevailing opinion urging them to fight on for 8" years more if necessary has quietened talk of compromise in the pro-K.M.T. press, The Leftist press is actively encouraging speculation on peace or compromise by a coali- tion Government, from which however the Four Families should be totally excluded.
On November 5th the Communist "Hwa Shiang Pao" published
"1
a message from various dissident political leaders in Hong Kong headed by Marshal Li Chaisum, to Mao Tse-Tung and Chu Teh, congratula- ting them on the recent Communist victories in the North resulting in liberation of large areas from the tyranny of the dictatorial Chiang Kai-shek regime.
3.
Both left and right-Wings Press has been actively specula- ting on future U.S. policy in China, as a result of the surprise victory of Truman; The Left see little good in it, but are trying to aggravate anti-U.S. feelings by further tendentious reports about U.S. "bases" in China. Attention was also given to a fabricated report about Shanghai being "internationalised", which, the Left press declared, meant selling it out to U.S. "imperialisim".
4.
The slump of the Gold Yuan has further dislocated the market, and the economic chaos and rice riots in Shanghai and Nanking have speeded up the flow of Chinese merchants and industrialists seeking refuge in Hong Kong for their wealth. Meanwhile Hong Kong's action in lending, at the request of the Economic Cooperation Administration in China, 10,000 tons of rice to relieve the situation in Shanghai, has had a very good press.
5.
The Hong Kong Chinese Police Constable arrested in early August by the Chinese for a technical infraction of the border when chasing a returned banishee was finally returned to Hong Kong last week.
K.M.A. BARNETT