TNAG-0003-FCO40-39-Commission-of-Enquiry-into-the-Kowloon-disturbances-addition-1968 — Page 26

PART III

THE DISTURBANCES

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INTRODUCTION

79. In the five chapters of this part we set out in chronological sequence an account of the principal events between 4th and 9th April, as they appear from the evidence presented to us. Inevitably, in seeking an overall picture, the most comprehensive information was to be found in police sources, but we would like here to pay tribute to the assistance we have had from the very wide coverage given to these events by the press, both through photographs and text, and to the readiness of newspaper reporters and photographers to come forward and give us their own recollections of what they saw; recollections which in many cases proved to be remarkably vivid and helpful.

80. For some of the narrative, particularly for the events of the 5th and the earlier part of the 6th, we were largely dependent on statements from demonstrators, who in many respects showed themselves unreliable witnesses but, subject to particular reservations mentioned later, we think the description contained in the following chapters gives a reasonably reliable account of what occurred.

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CHAPTER 1. THE EVENTS OF APRIL 4TH AND 5TH

- THE DEMONSTRATIONS

81. 'The Hunger Striker'. The first incident in the sequence of events preced- ing the demonstrations and riots in Kowloon was the appearance on 4th April, at about 9 a.m., at the Star Ferry Concourse, Hong Kong, of a young man, later identified as SO Sau Chung, aged 27 and variously described as artist, translator or unemployed. He took up a prominent position between the subway and the turnstiles, wearing a black jacket on which were painted in English and Chinese the words 'Hail Elsie! Join hunger strike to block fare increase', 'Democratic' and, in Chinese, 'Oppose gambling'.

82. During the day he was approached by a number of newspaper and radio reporters to whom he declined to identify himself but said that his object was to maintain a hunger strike on the concourse until he collapsed or the proposal to increase the ferry fares was withdrawn. He indicated that the idea was entirely his own, though he had been inspired by the example of Mrs. ELLIOTT and a Mr.

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