CO537-3715 — Page 70

Secretariat file No. 1170/475

1

SAVINGRAM

To

the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

From the Governor, Hong Kong.

Date 2/January,

January, 1948.

Eptd to: Special Commissioner

Singapore, H

No. 4 Ambassador,Nanking.

No.

7

7 SECRET

Consul-General

Canton.

No!2

Following is political appreciation for Hong Kong for the period December 30th, 1947, to January 12th, 1948:

1.

Fanned by an artificial agitation the Kowloon City squatters showed no signs of complying with the magistrate's order for their eviction, despite repeated warnings and offers of alternative sites. It was therefore necessary on January 5th for the Police to take action to evict them, in the course of which two ringleaders were arrested for inciting the others to resist and obstructing the Police in the execution of their duty. A week later, on January 12th, further Police action was necessary since many of the squatters whose huts had been demolished had re-erected them on the former sites. On this occasion the Police, who were met by volleys of stones and other missiles, were forced to fire their revolvers into the ground as a warning, and tear smoke was used, after which the area was successfully cleared, and the illegal structures demolised. Six persons were admitted to hospital, five suffering from slight injuries and one from a bullet in the abdomen which was almost certainly a ricochet. His condition is not described as serious.

RECEIVED

48

C. O. REGY

2.

>

As may be expected, the Kowloon City case has evoked violent reactions not only in Hong Kong, but in China, where demonstrations are said to be planned. The Hong Kong Chinese language press has been almost uniformly hostile, and exaggerated and distorted accounts of the incident have appeared, while little prominence is given to the official statements which have been issued. The Chinese Government has formally protested in Nanking, and also in Hong Kong through Mr. T.W. Kwok, Special Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Apart from Mr. T.W. Kwok's ineptness, the responsibility for the exacerbation of the situation falls mainly upon Chinese public bodies and Chinese officials, in particular upon the Po On Magistrate (Po On is the Chinese district near the border of Hong Kong New Territories) who visited the Kowloon City area after the first eviction action and made statements which encouraged the squatters to remain on the land. The case of the two men arrested on January 5th was heard on January 13th when the Kowloon Magistrate sentenced them to three months each. The men contested the jurisdiction of the court.

•

Chinese political dissidents have been particularly active in Hong Kong during the period. Dissident elements of the Kuo Min Tang held conferences in Hong Hong over Christmas under the Chairmanship of Marshal Li Chai Sum, and on January 1st, they announced the

formation of the "Kuo-Min-Tang Revolutionary Committee". A lengthy manifesto strongly critical of the Chiang Kai Shek regime was issued, and the committee also outlined its future policies in a document which appeared in the Leftist newspaper "Hwa Siang Pao".

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