Secretariat File No: 1170/473.
SAVING RAM.
To the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
From: the Governor, Hong Kong.
Date: 9th November, 1948.
No.:
96.
SECRET.
45
(R) British Consul
General,
CANTON (No. 69.)
(No.69.
British Embassy,
NANKING, (No.56.) Comm. General,
SINGAPORE (NO 18.) G.0.C., HONG KONG.
Following is a political report for Hong Kong for
the two weeks ending 1st November, 1948.
A
The Nationalist military reverses in Manchuria and North China have dominated the political scene. wave of pessimism and defeatism has swept over local Chinese. There has been a flood of rumours about Chiang Kai-shek's resignati on, assassination or kidnapping. The anti-Chia ng Kai-shek elements, on the other hand, are filled with hope that the civil war will be speedily over. They have admitted that the debacle in Manchuria was faster than they expected, but, as the editor of the Hwa Shiang Pao, the pro-communist newspaper, expressed it, they were "psychologically preparod" for the collapse, and the imminent downfall of the Chiang
· Kai-shek regine is now predicted.
2.
"Marshal Li Chai-sum colebrated his sixty-fourth birthday by a party at which many of the leading anti-Kuo- mintang Chinese in Hong Kong were present, and a spirit of jubilation prevailed over the news from the North. Telk of the formation of a coalition Government is wide-spread, and Li Chai-sum evidently believes that he will be included. On October 21st nine of the anti-K.M.T. Chinese "democratic" parties in Hong Kong sent a joint appeal to the United Nations General Assembly denouncing the Chinese Delegation led by Dr. Wang Shih-chich as "unqualified to speak for the Chinese people" and at the same time condemning the United States for intervening in China and thereby menacing the peace of the Far East. The appeal, a lengthy document, is chiefly devoted to denunciation of the United States. It is interesting in that it refers to the Chinese communist party and states the t the signatories of the appeal "are convinced that its programme does not go beyond the scope of democratic revolution". This is clearly an attempt to lull the fears of those who are afraid that Chinese communism will be as oppressive as every other dictatorship. The appeal was signed by the China Democratic League, the K.M.T. Revolutionary Committce, The Democracy Promotion Associa- tion, The Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party, The National Salvation Socicty, The San Min Chu Yi Comrades' Association, the h.M.T. Democracy Association, The Chi Kung Tang and the Democratic Socialist Party (Reform Group). The last-maned party has incidentally been recently river by internal disputes, and has split further on the issue of cooperation with the Communists.
3.
In line with the anti-rican propaganda of most of the Leftist groups in Hong Kong, the Hwa Shiang Pac published a report on the 20th October that the United States Navy would use the facilities of Hong Kong if Tsingtao were occupied by the Communiste. The report was ascribed to a French news agency quoted by a Shanghai nowspaper.
The