CO537-4849 — Page 26

TC.

Secretariat File: 9/3571/48s.

SAVINGRAM.

Secretary of State for the

Colonies.

From: Governor, Hong Kong.

довтол

Date: 12th January, 1948.

No.:

26. SECRET.

(R) British Embassy, NANKING

(No. 16) Consulate-General,

SHANGHAI

alz (No. ५

4

Comm. General, S.E.A. (No. 19 ) British Embassy, BANGKOK

(No. 14 )

High Commissioner, KUALA

LUMPUR (No. 18)

British Legation, MANILA (No.19) G.0.C., Hong Kong (No. — ) Copy to D. S.0. Separately (No.)

1949.

Hong kong Political Summary No.9 for January,

The Communist advance to the north bank of the Yangtze creates a number of new problems for Hong Kong, the most important of which is the potential threat to the security of the Colony which a Communist dominated China may present. The threat to Hong Kong is to be considered not only from the point of view of external attack but, from the internal point of view, by subver- sive Communist agitation, in particular the weapon of a general strike. These problems are now being studied and plans being made to cope with the threats which may arise. The appeal for volunteers for a Hong Kong Defence Force is shortly to be launched and this may be an important factor in defence plans for the Colony. question of border control is receiving special attention, but in this connection it has to be borne in mind that closing (by wiring) or otherwise controlling the frontier at this stage may create the very problems which it is desired to avoid.

The

2.

Among Chinese in Hong Kong the relief at Chiang Kai-shek's departure from the scene has been succeeded by doubts regarding the genuineness of his retirement. The Left-wing press, echoing the Communist regime in North China, are studiously taking the line that it is all a trick to gain time for the K.M.T. regime. The Left-wing press have been most reticent on the doings of General Li Tsung-jen's Government and it is clear that the Communist tactics are to sow doubt and confusion in the minds of the ordinary Chinese and make the task of the Communists more easy. The role the Chinese Communist Party have reserved for Marshal Li Chai-sum and his "democratic" friends who arrived in North China from Hong Kong has already been made clear when the Marshal and some fifty other political exiles who had at various times been in Hong Kong since the end of the Japanese war, signed their names to a statement issued somewhere in North China on January the 22nd roundly denouncing Li Tsung-jen's peace efforts, and stating in unmistakable Marxist language that "the revolution must be carried through to the very end with all parties united under the leadership of the Communist Party". Meanwhile the average Chinese continues to hope for an early peace but deres not speculate on the exact form which it will take.

B

The removal of the seat of the National Govern- ment from Nanking to Canton has been grected with a marked lack of enthusiasm. It is not believed locally that the Government will really be able to exercise effective authority from Canton over what remains of Nationalist China. It is believed also that the separa tist and individualistic tendencies of the Kwangtung a nã