PART V
PERSONS INVOLVED
CHAPTER 1.
THE TWO URBAN COUNCILLORS
292. Imbedded in the general outline of events already recounted are the factor which bear on the position of the two Urban Councillors who were represented before us, Mr. BERNACCHI, O.B.E., Q.C. and Mrs. ELLIOTT.
293. It is clear from his own evidence that Mr. BERNACCHI opposed the Star Ferry Company's application for an increase in fares as unjustified and did not accept the conclusions of the Transport Advisory Committee's report published on 19th March; but neither he nor the Reform Club was in the forefront of the public opposition and his primary concern with the subject matter of our Inquiry came from two occasions, on 5th and 6th April, when he was in contact with a number of the demonstrators. On the evening of the 5th, when looking for Mr. ELLIOTT at the Urban Council Chamber, they met him and sought his advice. The exact words used in the ensuing interchange have not emerged, and indeed one could hardly expect them to emerge with any great clarity, but it appears that Mr. BERNACCHI, at this stage, gave no encouragement to demonstrations and took the prudent course of suggesting that the demonstrators should approach the Reform Club for guidance. Moreover, two newspaper reporters-though strangely enough not Mr. BERNACCHI himself-recounted to us that at this time Mr. BERNACCHI told the demonstrators that without a police permit a demonstration would be in breach of the law. Whether it was this advice that moved LO Kei to try and protect himself on this flank by ringing up the duty officer at Tsim Sha Tsui and engaging in the conversation about a procession which we have already mentioned cannot be established with certainty, but it seems highly probable.
294. What precisely transpired at the meeting on the following afternoon at the Reform Club is again somewhat uncertain. Individual accounts of what occurred did not tally and even those who were apparently trying to be truthful did not claim a complete and accurate memory of all that was said, made more difficult of recollection, as it undoubtedly was, by the necessity for translation at the time. Without a more complete and exact account of what occurred, it is not possible to say whether there was any justification for the evidence given to us by RAGGENSACK that others present may have found an element of encouragement what Mr. BERNACCHI and Mr. WONG said; but even if any particular individual there did find such encouragement or was disposed to place greater emphasis on the earlier, rather than on the latter, part of the alleged statement that if they
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