TNAG-0003-FCO40-39-Commission-of-Enquiry-into-the-Kowloon-disturbances-addition-1968 — Page 121

came

d by

ment

bour.

loing

roup ntral

ntral

Ferry

LUI,

side.

iners

was

bout

es of

pro-

thers

s far

d of

hers.

busy

urse

one,

ere:

1 on

Some

any

tone

ficer

ction

Ising

[ did

and

s to

back

was

PART V PERSONS INVOLVED

101

366. On the Hong Kong side he stood with the others holding a newspaper in both hands as if reading. Some persons gathered round them and they were, he said, afraid. He and the group with him went towards the nearby reclamation area where, he said, they were told by a girl who came up to them that a meeting would be held on the tenth floor of Prince's Building that day at 5.30 p.m. and that SO Sau Chung would be at the meeting.

367. He attended the meeting which has already been described and then went with the others to Rediffusion Television studios to see the film about the demon- strations on the previous night. He said that he thought the people shown in the film did not seem sensible; indeed he was upset when he saw it and thought the demonstrators, whom he did not recognize, were overdoing it. He ended by stating that those who were taking part did not seem to be thinking straight.

368. After seeing the film, he went to the Star Ferry and crossed to Kowloon with the three others who had accompanied him to Hong Kong. He then told us a tale of boarding, with a middle-aged stranger, a No. 10 bus and having an apparently uneventful ride to the ferry at Jordan Road, where at about 10.20 p.m. he had a brief meal and walked home to his residence in Canton Road. Having regard to the state of affairs in the area at the time and the route of No. 10 bus, this story, whilst not impossible, seemed very unlikely and was quite impossible to reconcile with his conviction for inciting to riot that evening, a charge to which, according to the court record, he pleaded guilty, admitting the prosecutor's state- ment that about 10.30 p.m. he was leading a group of demonstrators along Nathan Road and took the initiative in damaging a parking meter with a brick, an example which was followed by others in the vicinity. Having admitted these allegations, he made a plea in mitigation saying that he had been used by a person with curly hair wearing spectacles and asked for leniency. Subsequently, he took legal advice and applied for a review of his sentence but not of his conviction. The Probation Officer, to whom he had expressed remorse for what he had done, claiming momentary youthful impulse, gave a very good report of him and his family saying, incidentally, that he was frank and responsive. The magistrate gave weight to this report and, on review, reduced the sentence to six months.

369. When recounting the events up to his alleged journey on a No. 10 bus, AU YEUNG was also frank and responsive to us but, thereafter, his manner changed and when seeking to explain why he had made these admissions to the court, he was shifty and unconvincing, quite different from when he was giving his earlier evidence. He spoke of having been assured that the charge against him was a very minor one and nothing much would happen to him. When asked why he signed a statement on the 10th, he said, 'I signed the statement thinking that there was nothing serious in the charge of throwing stones'.

370. He then averred that he was frightened in court because two detectives were standing nearby, but later turned for the first time, at any rate in public, to allegations about beating.