INWARD TELEGRAM
TO THE COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (The Secretary of State)
FROM HONG KONG (Sir D. Trench)
En clair
Do
R.
21st March, 1967. 21st
#1
10.55 hrs.
221
10
MAR
66
1967
RECEIVED IN ARCHIVES No. 63 22 MARIYO/
No. 374.
4WA2/1
Addressed to Commonwealth Office (D.T.D.).
"Peking No. 129.
Repeated
" Washington No. 72.
"POLAD, Singapore No. 47.
The left wing press this morning (21st March) gives pride of place on its front page to a summarised version of the C.P.G. Note of Protest of 20th March and to short editorials supporting the Note which "clearly expressed the attitude of the Chinese people including compatriots in Hong Kong and Kowloon". "The British Government and British Authorities in Hong Kong should think hard about the warning that they must stop providing Hong Kong to the United States for use as an operational base for its war of aggression in Vietnam; otherwise they will have to bear all the serious consequences".
2.
On the Hong Kong pages there are prominent reports to the effect that amidst the angry condemnation of residents of Hong Kong the ENTERPRISE slid out of harbour quietly on the morning of 20th March accompanied by three other vessels. However three other United States vessels covered in the fresh blood of the Vietnamese people arrived yesterday making the total in port seven. The United States Navy shore patrols which appeared at the gates of H.M.S. TAMAR after the arrival of the ENTERPRISE were still there on the evening of 20th March.
3+ The reports then go on to describe how some of the vessels now in port or recent visitors had taken part in actions in South and North Vietnam.
4. A large part of the Hong Kong news page is devoted to the publication of readers letters protesting about the use of Hong Kong as a military base by the United States.
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