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EXTRACT FROM REPORT FOR DECEMBER, 1946 FROM A SECRET SOURCE

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(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withdrawn

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