INWARD SAVING TALAAM
ADVANCE COPY
HKWID'C'
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“421
26 AUG 19.7
sent LIRD
UNCLASSIFIED
By Bag
Mr. Bullard
No. 11 Saving
24 August, 1967
UNCLASSIFIED
Nr. Heyout
ASIDE
HWB1/17
Addressed to Foreign Office telegram No. 11 Saving of 24 August
Repeated for information Saving to:- Hong Kong 1
Peking
6 Washingtoh 19
Following is text of editorial in Bangkok Post dated 22 August:
A brutal Act
To crown several weeks of terrorist acts in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong comes the latest a communist terrorist bomb snuffed out the lives of two innocent children in the North Point district of Hong Kong island. The blast instantly killed an eight-year-old Chinese girl and fatally injured her two-year-old. brother. The children were passing by when the bomb went off. Tears were in all eyes and one wept bitterly. A police inspector, according to reports, with tears streaming down his cheeks, growled with almost uncontrollable rage, "My God, this is murder. Plain stark murder. This would be the reaction of any one anywhere in the world, for the sentiment of humanity is the same whether in Piccadilly Circus, Fifth Avenue or even at the Ted Square. most cowardly murder will be condemned by one and all. This senseless killing of the innocent by conscienceless leftist holli- gans, we are sure, is not a great victory of the "invincible", Mao Tse-tung thought. Is this, then, their idea of settling blood debts?
This
The exemplary restraint shown Ly the Hong Kong police authori- ties is what any civilised government would do in such aggravating circumstances. But there is a limit to official endurance. The British authorities have time and again affirmed that no amount of hooliganism and terrorism will deter them from taking adequate steps to maintain law and order in the colony. The Peking demand to lift the ban on three Hong Kong leftist newspapers and drop the charges against five communist newsmen has been rightly dismissed by the authorities. Newspapers that tend to foment disruption and upset orderly governments merit not only closure but have to face penal action. The leftist journalists too, should remember that they have to play a more responsible role, the role that any journalist worth his salt in the Free World would. Liberty is not licence. It means more respons:bility and sobriety.
The tough-sounding 48-hour Peking ultimatum will be treated with the contempt it deserves. It is reminiscent of the tale of the wolf and the lamb. The wolf intent on gobbling up the lamb · accuses the poor lamb of dirtying the river though it was drinking
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