TNAG-0003-FCO40-39-Commission-of-Enquiry-into-the-Kowloon-disturbances-addition-1968 — Page 154

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PART VI CONCLUSIONS

feel frustrated at the threat to their aspirations posed by rising prices and a slowing down in the growth of the economy and of their own pace of achievement.

492. On the evidence of the rioters themselves, we do not believe that any of those factors were direct causes of the riots, and this view finds support in the many thousands of people who must be suffering economic hardships, but who did not participate. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to assume that some demonstra- tors were motivated by feelings of frustration at their own economic situation and the obvious gap between wealth and poverty in Hong Kong. We would accept the assertion that feelings of frustration and jealousy must be a natural reaction amongst members of a generally underprivileged section of the community faced with limited chances in life owing to inadequate opportunity, education or skills. Young people particularly would tend to look at any gap between their aspirations and their achievements as unjust and to resist any widening of that gap even if this were caused by a raising of its upper limits, which did not necessarily have any adverse financial effect on them personally at the time. Some feeling of frustration must inevitably result from the realization of being left behind in the race to affluence. Nevertheless we believe this to be the exception rather than the rule in Hong Kong: where the average young person welcomes and seizes the opportunities to carve out a better future than his parents were able to do and concentrates his attentions on this objective; being far too sophisticated to think of trying to solve economic problems by violent means.

493. A second aspect of this type of motivation would derive from the condi- tions of full employment, rapid turnover of jobs and general social mobility which exists in Hong Kong. These factors would tend to enable young men to kick over the traces without fear of direct economic retribution. The multiplicity of jobs held for short periods by some of the more prominent demonstrators and rioters was significant.

Employment

494. In view of newspaper reports of growing unemployment as a result of a recession and since a number of the young people involved in the disturbances claimed to be unemployed, we examined the available statistics concerning employ- ment in Hong Kong. These are confined to a record of the number of persons notified to the Labour Department of the Hong Kong Government as being employed in registered and recorded industrial undertakings and to a record of vacancies in these establishments voluntarily notified by employers.

495. The former indicated a continuing growth in industrial employment from approximately 230,000 in March, 1961 to over 353,000 in March 1964 and 376,000 in March 1966. In view of this increase together with the very large increase in employment available in other industries, such as the hotel and tourist trades, which have grown very rapidly in recent years but of which no employment figures