Cypher/Cat A
SECRET
IMMEDIATE HONG KONG TO COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
Telno 1911
TOP
(DTD)
26 December 1967
664
SECRET
Addressed to Commonwealth Office telegram No. 1911 of
26 December.
Repeated for information to POLAD Singapore, Washington and Canberra.
For Commonwealth Office and Cabinet Office for J.1.C.
Following from LIC.
Weekly assessment of the situation as at 25 December, 0600 hours follows in two parts (part 1 only for Canberra).
Part 1.
The principal features of the Communist confrontation during this period have been:-
(a) A marked reduction in the number of bombs reported. 14 hoax and 8 genuine devices came to notice, 2 of the latter being found at the Exhibition of Hong Kong Products on 20 December. There were no explosions.
(b) The continued calm of the border area broken on 21 December by a small group of children and adults in Chinese territory who threw stones at British military personnel repairing the border primary fence. Intermittent stoning continued for one hour and caused temporary discontinuation of repairs. There were no injuries and no action was taken by P.L.A. in the vicinity. There was a further minor incident involving children on 23 December. However, an unconfirmed report received on 22 December states that additional P.L.A. personnel have now been deployed in the Lo Wu area, Chinese territory to prevent village children approaching the border fence to throw stones into British territory.
(c) Continued anti-British propaganda in the Communist Press which has again concentrated on the salinity of the water supply and the effects of devaluation. These reports toned down slightly during the week but considerable publicity was given to a large meeting of members of Unions of Government servants (most of whom are now unemployed) during which the need for increased wages was emphasised. After a lapse of several weeks, publicity was again given to alleged ill-treatment of Communists in prison and critisism of governments squatter clearance policy.
(a) Further meetings by members of many Communist organisations, particularly Unions, to propagate Mao's thoughts during which criticism of government for salinity and devaluation was supplemented by demands for a general wage increase campaign. large meeting, unemployed Union members were instructed to visit the homes of employed workers to encourage them to demand wage increases
D
HWP IN
SECRET
At one
2. Limited
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