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maintained. Interest is being taken in the movement for constitutional reform which began in February when a Reform Club was formed by a group of Europeans. A Chinese Reform Club has now been established and ebates have been held at which the merits of an enlarged Legislative Council as opposed to a Municipal Council have been discussed. An unofficial European member of the Legislative Council has moved for an increase in the number of members of the Legislative Council, and particularly of unofficial members. Local Chinese opinion, however, considers that greater representation should be given to Chinese in any constitu- tional reform measures, basing themselves on the numerical superiority of Chinese in the Colony.
4.
During the month an attempt was made by a section of the Chinese press to create another hawker incident and
The case concerned a to whip up anti-British feeling. 28-year old hawker who on 10th April during a Police raid ran up to the first floor of a building and fell to his death from the verandah. One Chinese newspaper alleged that he fell as a result of action by a European Police Inspector. In the face of warnings from the Police that they were laying themselves open to criminal libel the press dropped the matter, and attempts to make a demonstra-
It will be recalled tion out of the funeral fizzled out. that two years ago the agitation following the "Peanut Hawker Incident" in Hong Kong had anti-British repercus- sions all over China.
5.
The Communist capture of Nanking and the threat to Shanghai have resulted in an appreciable increase in the number of refugees and other people flocking into the Colony. It is calculated that the net increase in popula- tion due to these arrivals over the past five months has been over 80,000, and of these over half have been in the last four or five weeks, as many as 18,000 arriving in one week. Serious attention is being given to this problem.
6.
The arrivals from Shanghai and elsewhere include who ero a considerable number of leading K.M.T. officials now seeking security for themselves and their possessions. One of the less welcome of these visitors is TU YUET-SEN, the notorious Shanghai gangster-politician and controller In view of his known connec- of the Shanghai underworld.
tion with secret societies he will be warned that he will be immediately expelled from the Colony if any evidence is received of such activities here.
7.
Dr. T.V. Soong, who can be considered a well-
took established resident political refugee in Hong Kong, several journeys during April in connection with eleventh hour efforts to bring conflicting K.M.T. political groups together. On the 8th April he left by air for Formosa,
Rumours have been in circu- returning a few days later. lation for several weeks that he is proposing to leave shortly for Europe in efforts to obtain arms for the K.M.T. He had applied for a visa for temporary resid- ence in the United Kingdom and is known to be in possess-
He is however ion of visas for France and Switzerland. pessimistic about the Nationalist chances, and appears to pin his hopes on a third world war breaking out soon
8.
The movement of pro-Communist "Democratic personages" to the "liberated areas" in North China con- tinues.
Departures during April included the wellknown revolutionary, Madame LIAO Chung-kai, whose husband was executed many years ago by the K.M.T. She is nominally a member of the China Democratic League. Since her arrival in North China she is believed to have attended meetings of the Communist controlled Chinese Women's
A number of left-wing Chinese Democratic Federation.