CO885-11 — Page 16

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TLC.O.882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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counter propaganda among the Chinese, which was placed in my charge, with Mr. Wong Tak-kwong, Mr. Fung Yuk-shum and Mr. Li Sheung-ming as my assistants. Our first difficulty was to get our literature printed. Private printing firms were afraid; the employees of the Government printers had left; and the Gaol Printing Press was very slow at this new work. We appealed to Father Robert, the head of the Societe des Missions Estrangeres, for the help of the Pokfulam Press, but the workmen there also refused, and would not be moved by his exhortations. Six ring- leaders left, and when the police were appealed to by Father Robert, and tried to arrest them, they could not be found, having presumably fled the Colony.

55. Meantime the work of the Gaol Press had improved and we had to rely on it entirely, though the type used was unsatis- factory. But even the tranquil atmosphere of the gaol was not free from the strike fever. When we were very anxious to issue accidentally "dropped the an important leaflet, a prisoner frame of type already set up, scattering every letter on the floor. On another occasion a This resulted in delay of 24 hours.

Even the coolie- cutting machine was mysteriously broken. distributors of our pamphlets were tampered with, for when we checked the distribution by enquiries along the supposed route of It was only after several the workers, we found wide gaps. changes of distributors that we got the work done properly. Attempts were also made to spy on the work of those composing the propaganda literature, but these were very ineffective.

56. The difficulties raised by our enemy show the fear with The Canton which he regarded this new weapon of ours. Authorities and labour agitators took our propaganda so seriously that on one occasion they went to the trouble of answering our leaflets categorically in their labour paper in Canton-"The Path of the Labourers." This was in the issue of the 25th July, 1925. In the same issue they exposed our methods of working; but so far they have been unable to check the growing influence of our leaflets and other literature.

57. While the Chinese at the beginning of these troubles swallowed everything the agitators told them, they became more critical after a fortnight of our treatment. At first they believed the most absurd lies about daily murders, intended cutting off of the water supply to the Chinese, the assassination of the Governor by an Indian soldier, invasion of the New Territories by 50,000 Chinese troops, and wholesale incendiarism to take place on a certain date. It is unnecessary to repeat all the wild rumours which received full belief. When our propaganda was really under way, though two, if not three, political murders actually did take place, no one would believe the fact! This effect of our work is still continuing, and it has produced marked results not only in the Colony, but among Overseas Chinese. In Singapore a significant incident was reported by their Secretary for Chinese Affairs. One of our pamphlets was sent to a prominent Chinese, and it so impressed him that he had it reprinted in a Chinese paper, and the example was followed by the rest of the Chinese press, with a complete change of tone as a result.

58. Posters were also made use of by us with considerable success, being put up in such places as the Chinese Recreation

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Ground (where the lower classes assemble), near the Post Office, the Central Market, and at prominent places in Shaukiwan, These posters were sometimes issued Yaumati, Hunghom, &c. in the name of an imaginary association called "The Peace and Order Preservation Society," and sometimes without any names at all.

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59. But the best medium of propaganda has been the news- paper. At the beginning of July, as the only Chinese paper then publishing was unable or unwilling to print our news, we created

This was the Kung Sheung Yat Po our own newspaper. (The Industrial and Commercial Daily News), which was started largely through the instrumentality of Mr. H. K. Hung, a local solicitor, who got one of the oldest and ablest Chinese editors to This editor, Mr. Pun Wai-chau, write the leading articles.

Mr. Hung also secured the help unfortunately, has since died. of two other Chinese as publisher and chief editor respectively -men who had been expelled from the Kuomintang on account of the moderation of their views. Though at first the "Kung Sheung was only a small single sheet, less than half the size of the large double sheet of the "Wah Kiu Yat Po," it has done good from the very day of its issue. The publication of a paper independent and fearless of Bolshevism, which daily attacked those doctrines, inspired a little courage in the "Wah Kiu." The other newspapers which had suspended publication also recom- menced with a daily issue of one sheet. To-day, because of the example of the "Kung Sheung," all the Chinese newspapers are anti-Red, but we are carefully watching at least two of them to see that they are not converted by Russian money. This shows that the rapid spread of feeling which can so easily be induced in a mob, can also be caused in the daily journals which affect and reflect the mob psychology.

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60. The men who launched and are running the "Kung Sheung Yat Po" deserve every credit. They have been marked out for Reds. There is little doubt dire punishment by the Canton

The that the bomb outrage in a tramcar near the Central Market

renegades." was directed against the two Kuomintang bomb exploded in the car they were using at the stopping place where they almost invariably alighted. By the merest chance they intended to get off the car one section later, and so had not descended to the lower stage of the tramcar where the bomb was placed.

61. We must all agree that there is great need for continued propaganda. Our enemy has been, and will be, unceasing in his attacks upon us, and his attempts to buy over some of our Chinese newspapers, We must keep on educating the public, and see that our case continues to be presented to them in the manner we want, whether we have actual civil disturbance at the time or not. With this object Mr. Chow Shou-son and I, with other Chinese merchants, have recently turned the "Kung Sheung Yat Po" into a permanent newspaper, and are running it at a considerable loss, even with the Government grant of $500 a month, as a large number of copies have been sent abroad gratis.

62. English propaganda work is. I understand, being done by Captain A. McClay, of the South China Publicity Bureau.