We
concern your Department in the memorandum below No. 40. should be glad to have these early as it may well be that the Governor has raised some Kad points with Mr. Rees- Williams during his visit tô Hong Kong, and the latter may wish to discuss them when he gets back to the Office next week.
X
A
18.11.1949.
Mr. Evans has asked me to comment in the first place on the proposals at (40) regarding press and radio in Hong Kong when China is completely under Communist control and it is expected that Hong Kong will be particularly subject to Communist pressure.
Speaking generally, the proposed measures for dealing with the press and radio are severe and wholehearted but they are justifiable on grounds of retaliation, and it is suggested that they should be subject to H.M.G. agreeing to apply them as part of a general policy and not unilaterally in Hong Kong. The latter is an important qualification, but one wonders whether in fact it is practicable or justifiable because inevitably Hong Kong will draw the concentrated attention of the Chinese Communists and it may seem unnecessary to spread the quarrel wider e.g. to Malaya in order not to make it appear that Hong Kong is alone retaliating against pressure from China. I should have thought that the issue might have been treated as a local Hong Kong matter, with H.M.G. giving its full backing, and that any extension of retaliatory action
e.g. to Malaya or U.K. should be dealt with on the merits of each case.
I think that the measures proposed in respect of the press are justified and that it is right to be prepared to deal drastically and boldly with subversive activities on the part of the Chinese press, journalists and news agencies, because the Chinese character is unsentimental towards British conceptions of freedom and fair play and is much more likely to appreciate and accept bold action rather than temporising and halfhearted reaction to insults and pinpricks. I would suggest, moreover, that the Chinese are unlikely to be aroused by a plea that the measures are justified on grounds of retaliation, and that it will be necessary to prepare active measures of counter-propaganda. In the likely event of the local Chinese press proving to be uncooperative and unwilling to use press material issued by the Hong Kong Government, I feel that the Government should consider the possibility of
organising its own news-sheet in order to have at
1 least one journal in which its decisions and views can
have full opportunity of expression.
Regarding
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