TNAG-0003-FCO40-39-Commission-of-Enquiry-into-the-Kowloon-disturbances-addition-1968 — Page 145

PART VI CONCLUSIONS

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not the comments of professional social scientists, arrived at after subjecting the various factors to the test of established sociological theories. They are lay opinions, delimited and coloured by our knowledge and experience of the local community, and based on the evidence available to us regarding the motives of the actual participants and the moods of the crowds.

455. For ease of reference, we have subdivided these factors under the general headings of (A) Political, (B) Economic, (C) Social Conditions and (D) The Special Problems of Youths, although it is evident that in some cases the factors overlap or fall between two headings.

(A) Political

456. The placard supporting the K.M.T. found abandoned in Nathan Road, as apparently being of no interest, told its own story. Commentators generally agreed that external politics played no part in these disturbances and that, in con- trast with the riots in 1956, there was almost a total absence of Communist- K.M.T. rivalries; the significance of this is likely to be that the younger generation in Hong Kong is currently less interested in the ideological struggles of which their parents had experience on the mainland.

457. With regard to internal politics, the thrusts at 'colonialism' in one or two of the demonstrators' speeches seem to have evoked little response and only one witness, Mr. BERNACCHI, claimed that the lack of elected representation in the higher councils of Government may have been a causative factor. Most com- mentators agreed that there were few signs of any emerging demand for political representation.

458. Although the political element was minimal in this sense, considerable emphasis was laid by some witnesses on the effects of a feeling in Hong Kong of impermanence, of a lack of belonging and of elements of misunderstanding between Government and people.

Impermanence and Not-Belonging

459. Social workers gave evidence of a sense of insecurity amongst young people in Hong Kong arising from a feeling of impermanence and of not-belonging. They held that the former arose partly from the traditional view of Hong Kong being an entrepôt for people as well as goods, a place where one worked for a time and then hoped to move on; this view was accentuated by the coming and going of expatriate staff in Government and commercial firms, and also by the evident advantages of going abroad.

460. Some social workers felt that this sense of impermanence, enhanced on occasions by unreasonable fears of deportation contributed to a sense of not- belonging and of not having a real stake in the community of Hong Kong. But