TNAG-0003-FCO40-39-Commission-of-Enquiry-into-the-Kowloon-disturbances-addition-1968 — Page 142

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PART VI CONCLUSIONS

sympathy and support. The escalation from this point was rapid, springing from the volatile excitement engendered by groups of young men chanting and carrying banners as they marched at night through crowded streets where a number sym- pathized with their slogans.

What lessons can be learned?

443. From all this one lesson is obvious and simple; that any group of young men parading through the heart of Kowloon at night with banners and with slogans about a controversial public issue is a real potential threat to public order: but these events also disclose a deeper and more complex problem.

444. As already indicated in Part II, the T.A.C. and the man in the street were not directing their attention to the same question but, even if they had been, the gap between informed and uninformed opinion was so large that it was unlikely they would have given the same answer even if they had been asked the same question.

445. The virtual disappearance of vocal opposition after the riots-swept aside perhaps by a general revulsion from these violent excesses—may tempt one to think that the great majority of the people really did not have very strong con- victions and were only superfically and briefly committed to opposition on a matter which, in the ultimate analysis, did not affect them very deeply. But even if that is not too facile a conclusion, one cannot feel very happy about a state of affairs which requires a near catastrophe of this kind to bring public opinion to a realistic appraisal of the issues. If a similar problem arises again, how are the man in the street and the man at the council table to be brought close together, so that the divergence of their views does not become so menacing and so ready an opportunity for conflict as on this occasion? How can the gap be bridged? To put the unin- formed or inadequately informed at the council table, so that the advice tendered will reflect these qualities, would not appear to be a very satisfactory solution. It would seem that the solution towards which we must strive is to give the man in the street that measure of information and understanding, that capacity to form a sound judgment which will bring him closer to the council table. To this end there are only two mass media available, the radio and the press, of which the press is still the more pervasive and persistent influence. By the leaflets distributed on the 6th, Government tried to make a direct contact with the man in the street but, in Hong Kong, Government has no party press of its own, anxious to put over a particular policy, and in matters such as this has to rely on the freely given co-operation of the 'fourth estate'. For such co-operation goodwill on both sides is of course required and a common intention: the intention to provide the man in the street with as much information as possible on the major economic issues of the day in Hong Kong.

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