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Hong Kong telegram No. 1720 to Commonwealth Office (D.T.D.)
2.
2
Police action against Communist targets continued, mainly in connexion with the arrest of bomb planters. A number of pers were arrested in possession of small quantities of explosives, fireworks and inflammatory documents and another bomb manufacturing centre neutralised. On 14 November two members of the Seventeen Member Standing Committee of the All Circles Anti-Persecution Struggle Committee (ACAPSC) who are leading personalities in local Communist film circles, were arrested by police and are detained under the provisions of the Deportation of Aliens Ordinance. This brings to five the number of people of this Committee who are in police or prison custody.
3.
The Communist attempt to improve morale within labour circles has continued and numerous union meetings have been held urging the study of Mao, support of the dollar campaign and "united front" work. At one meeting it was alleged that the British had asked Peking to open negotiations regarding Hong Kong, thus, it was claimed, indicating a weakening of attitude. It was stated that, if these negotiations broke down, the ACAPSC planned to launch a colony wide attack, including demonstrations and acts of violence, with the object of forcing the British to surrender and admit their guilt. During other meetings unemployed and part employed workers who are not strikers received disbursements of cash and food purchased from "dollar campaign" funds. At the Federation of Trade Unions Workers Club, 400 members of various trades held an "anti unemployment, anti starvation" meeting, during which government was denounced for causing unemployment, permitting United States to use the colony as a base and closing Man Kam To bridge "thus hindering the import of China products and increasing the cost of living".
40. Increased political activity has continued also in Communist controlled schools. Students have attended a number of meetings at union premises where they have described their "ill treatment by police" or given political stage performances. At further meetings, on school premises, attended by teachers, students and parents, government "suppression" has been denounced and support advocated for the "seventeen principles" of educational reform issued by the education circles APSC. At one of these meetings, two female students described the death of their parents, one by alleged carelessness in a government clinic and the other by government "fascist violence" in the streets.
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The claim made at a union meeting concerning "negoations" between Britain and Peking may be no more than a morale booster for the activists in this union. However, it could be an attempt by the militants in the Communist camp to force the pace, and any alleged "failure" of "negotiations" could be used by them as an excuse to expand street violence at any time in the future. Whilst local Communists continue their efforts to attract members to frequent meetings and study groups at union premises, and to heighten the level of indoctrination in schools, as a part of the campaign to consolidate their ranks, the daily total of true and
/"hoax" bombs
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