TNAG-0003-FCO40-39-Commission-of-Enquiry-into-the-Kowloon-disturbances-addition-1968 — Page 69

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PART III THE DISTURBANCES

49

167. Mr. BRETHERTON described the state of Nathan Road at that time as being very thickly covered with broken glass and all sorts of debris; any moveable object had been thrown into the road, traffic signs, road signs, bus-stop signs, traffic pagodas had been overturned and one or two were on fire. There were small fires in the roadway, on the pavements and at entrances to shops and buildings; a number of motor vehicles were on fire and several had been burned out. Many buses and vehicles had been abandoned in Nathan Road, some obviously hastily as their engines were still running. This was about 1.30 a.m. on the morning of the 7th and Fire Services units were dealing with fires at their mainland headquarters and also in Shaw's Building. Mr. BRETHERTON reformed his company, swept through the area in which he had been operating and went back into Nathan Road. He then received instructions to deal with a reported crowd of some 30 persons, who were said to be attacking premises in and around the general area of Tong Mei Road/Boundary Street/Nathan Road and Bute Street. He deployed his platoons into various formations and instructed them to carry out sweeps of all the adjacent roads in this area. They met scattered groups of people but it was clear to him that the latter had, by this time, lost heart, so far as the police were concerned, and had no desire to clash or resist the police: their main desire being to vanish whenever the police appeared. About 3.30 a.m. he received instructions to carry out a patrol of the Mong Kok divisional area and enforce the curfew which he did until his company stood down at 5 a.m.

168. Meanwhile, the Marine company, after rescuing emergency unit car No. 8, had moved north to the Soy Street junction and secured it. There were still a lot of people milling about and Mr. RINGER got a message that one of his constables had fired two carbine shots. He extended his company further north towards Argyle Street where there were many more fires. A report was received that attempts were being made to loot the department store of the Yan Yan Company at the junction of Nathan Road and Nelson Street. He went to the store and saw that several windows had been broken and several rice cookers and other things were apparently missing. As he moved north, he searched for the drivers of the abandoned buses and tried to persuade them to get their vehicles moving. When he reached Shaw's Building, he found fires burning and the platoon of the Sham Shui Po company already ahead of him. On the way up he had seen a number of fires in the Argyle Street area and a number of burning vehicles. He made contact with Mr. McNUTT, Commander of the Sham Shui Po company and came to the conclusion that Mr. MCNUTT could handle the position in that immediate area. Shortly afterwards, he learned that his own headquarters section was being attacked by a crowd of 100 people in the Soy Street area; he went to their aid and had not only to fire tear smoke but to put in a baton charge to deal with the situation. These measures were not entirely effective and members of the crowd could be seen trying to light fires. Orders to disperse through a loud hailer proved ineffective, so Mr. RINGER pointed a carbine at the crowd but it had no effect;