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seems significant. In moving its adoption, the Attorney-General, the Hon. J. B. Griffin, observed that "the state of the world is gravely unsettled, and the maintenance of law and order in the Colony is likely to be endangered by outside influences." The Societies Ordinance, he added, had not been revised since 1920. Why the necessity for its urgent revision now? Chinese residents could not help recalling that, since 1920, unsettlement in China-not to speak of the world—had been visible even from Hong Kong, and that, apart from the "incident" of Japanese occupation, the Island had traditionally been used

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PREPARING FOR WORSE? as a base by notorious smugglers, pirates,

(BY A CHINESE CORRESPONDENT) AMERICAN policy towards China can be judged by watching Washington. British policy, from the standpoint of the average Chinese, is gauged by a dual test. What is said or done in distant Whitehall may be significant, but the behaviour of the Hong Kong Colonial Government is an equally important, more easily read, barometer. To the local observer, present readings are disquieting.

Except for allowing the Kuomintang to use Hong Kong as a base from which the new First Army was dispatched to Manchuria in 1946, the authorities in Hong Kong maintained, on the whole, an attitude of scrupulous neutrality in the civil war-until the Chiang Kai-shek regime began to collapse. Although it had never been considered necessary to take precautionary steps against local activities-culminating in the burning of the British Consulate in Canton-conducted by gangsters in the pay of Tai-li, the Himmler of Kuomintang China, the crossing of the Yangtze by the Chinese Communist armies was the signal for Hong Kong to become vociferously defence-minded. Even before the announcement from Whitehall that reinforcements of Regulars were to be sent out, a voluntary defence corps was being organised, an additional aerodrome planned; and orders were issued to the military garrison that they must be ready to support the police “in case of civil disobedience." The impression created by these measures was inevitably that the authorities felt that "enemies "-meaning the Chinese Communists—might soon be at the gate; and, in Chinese eyes, the suspicion that the Colonial Government was no longer politically neutral was heightened by the fact that, after the closure early in the year of an allegedly Left-wing college, all school teachers had been put on a licence basis.

Then came а measure which substantially curtailed the right to assemble. At the end of May, a Bill, of which the Committee on Un- American Activities might have been proud, was hurriedly passed. Its provisions were that all Societies with more than ten members must register with the Colonial Government. This done, the Registrar (the Chief Constable) is empowered to ban any Society which has any connection with political bodies outside the Island. Furthermore, under this extraordinary Bill, every resident in Hong Kong is liable to be summoned as a witness against any other suspected resident; and, if the Chief Constable considers it advisable for purposes of identification, such witnesses may be com- pulsorily photographed and required to submit to finger-printing. Any person obstructing these provisions becomes liable to arrest and, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding 200 dollars.

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To Chinese residents the timing of this Bill, which was passed on the day that Shanghai fell,

criminals and traitors. Had not the group led by the quisling Wang Ching-wei maintained several offices in the Colony before Pearl Harbour and even published a Chinese daily newspaper? As a tool of the Japanese, Wang was working as much for the betrayal of Hong Kong as of China; but there was apparently no need to revise the Societies Ordinance during the period of his subversive activities. Moreover, though Kuomintang agents and army deserters have lately been guilty of numerous outrages in Hong Kong, Mr. Griffin could not argue that the Chinese Left wing in the Colony had been responsible for any sort of social disturbance or even a labour dispute.

The result, calculated or not, of this new Society Ban

" has been to evoke angry protests, on the Communist radio system, from the Democratic League. The League declared that this creation by Britain of a "Police State" in Hong Kong would jeopardise the establishment of normal relations between Britain and New China and needlessly injure the friendship between the Chinese and British peoples. The Colonial Government appears to regard this protest with indifference; but its attitude contrasts oddly with the professed desire of Mr. Ernest Bevin, in his speech at Blackpool, to retain a friendly relationship with China. Even in the matter of trade, the official attitude seems to run counter to the interests and hopes of the British business community. For instance, the Controller of Films recently banned the showing in Hong Kong of three pictures which a merchant had brought back from Manchuria in part payment for goods sold there. The reason given for the banning of these pictures, which were docu- mentaries dealing with the progress of industrialisa- tion in the North, was that the Chinese Com- munists had, on their side, recently banned the showing of three British pictures. However that may be and at least one of the banned" British " pictures was made in Hollywood-this foolish act of retaliation has done much to prejudice the entire future of British films in China.

The British had a much better chance than the Americans to establish mutually advantageous

- I JUL 1949

relations with New China. In Chinese eyes,il.

they were not nearly so closely identified as the Americans with the Kuomintang regime, nor could they be held nearly so responsible for prolonging the bloodshed of the civil war. But, I repeat, through its geographical proximity, Hong Kong rather than Whitehall is the barometer which the Chinese study. A general, and shrewd, Chinese comment here is that Britain always hopes for better things and prepares for worse-a modern political gloss on Ovid's defeatism. If that be true, then it is Hong Kong apparently which is being allotted the role of

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preparing." If further follies in these prepara- tions are not vetoed by Whitehall, there is a real danger of irreparable damage being done to Anglo-Chinese relations.

Hong Kong, June.

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