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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.
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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 an important leaflet, a prisoner frame of type already set up, scattering ever/letter on the floor. dropped the This resulted in delay of 24 hours. On another occasion a cutting machine was mysteriously broken. Even the coolie- distributors of our pamphlets were tampered with, for when we checked the distribution by enquiries along the supposed route of the workers, we found wide gaps. It was only after several 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 which he regarded this new weapon of ours. The Canton 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.
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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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