3.
very day, two or more DC Six charter flights land at IK's
Kai Tak airport, bringing army and airforce men from S.Vnam on a
cek's RR. The British would prefer they wore mufti, but since the
clothes men come directly from combat, most of them must buy civilian vistkers
after they get to Hong Kong. The servicemen present no identification
to the British and clear H.K. customs, in a hurry. From the airport
they are driven directly to a British army barracks in HK's Kowloon
pection where they are briefed by American officers on the pleasures
and perils of the crown colony. their real to maintain what the
American consulate here calls A "low-sture of visibility" American
officials refused to let us record the largely innocuous briefing...
and oven tried to stop an NBC cameraman from Xilning the arrival of
a busload of RR servicenen at the briefing cente
official attitudes toward the presence of American servicemen in IK
accounted for the small turnout at a public concert given here
recently by the US Seventh Fleet band. The Pentagon wants good
community relations in K but keeps publicity on affairs such as
this to a minimum. As the band master remarked later "we draw a
bigger crowd than this if we play in the Philippine jungle."
Ambivilant
Unimpressed by the publicity domhold, HK's leading Communist
newspaper colled the band concert a "crime", politically-speaking,
that is..
When it comes to money, no one in Hong Kong tries to maintain
fictions about the "low x visibility" of American servicement.
kxx
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