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IMMEDIATE HONG KONG TO COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
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Приз 28
- 2 JAN.,
Telno 3
SECRET
2 January, 1968
HWB13
Addressed to Commonwealth Office telegram No.3 of 2 January Repeated for information to POLAD Singapore, Washington and Canberra.
For Commonwealth Office and Cabinet Office for JIC. Following from LIC.
Weekly assessment of the situation as at 1 January 1968 0600 hours. The principal features of the Communist confrontation during this period have been:
(a) A further reduction in the number of bomb reports, only 11 hoax bombs were planted and there were no incidents involving genuine devices.
(b) The absence of hostile activity in the border area.
(c) Continued anti-British propaganda in the Communist Press and at meetings in all local Communist circles the main themes being devaluation, salinity of water and the ill- treatment of prisoners. The need for wage increases and the propagation of Mao's Thoughts were also stressed, particularly at union meetings, and an exhibition of Mao's works at the Federation of Trade Unions Workers' Club has received considerable publicity.
2. Limited police action has continued against persons suspected of being responsible for bomb incidents. A cache of explosive material was seized in the New Territories.
3. A local Communist newspaper has concluded an agreement to take over a defunct Right Wing daily newspaper by the payment of outstanding debts amounting to about HK dollars 60,000. The paper which had a circulation of only about 7,000 is expected to resume publication during January 1968 with a staff recruited from two of the three Communist newspapers suppressed during August 1967.
4. Representatives of the Communist controlled Taikoo Dockyard Chinese Workers' Union, which has recently been notified that it will be de-registered because of its failure to submit accounts, visited the Registrar of Trade Unions (R.T.U.) on the 27 December and agreed to submit a letter guaranteeing that in future they would comply with the law. This is a complete reversal by this Union which had until then decided to carry on as a clandestine organisation. Upon receipt of the letter it is intended to withdraw the notice of de-registration.
5.
Following several weeks of violent condemnation of the Hong Kong education system, and the Chinese school certificate examination in particular, during last week three of the leading Communist controlled schools decided enter over 100 students for the 1968 examination.
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