0003160 G.F. 316
SECRET
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18.
On the following day, the "general strike" began (although in fact employees of the two bus companies went on strike the evening of the day before) and the results must have been extremely disappointing to the communists.
The only concern seriously affected
was the Kowloon Motor Bus Company, which, however, succeeded in maintaining an emergency service. The Star Ferry was not affected, the Hong Kong and Yaumati Ferry, the China Motor Bus Company (Hong Kong Island) and most taxi firms provided a reduced but satisfactory service. Public utilities, although in some areas short of staff, continued to operate effectively. In the harbour, work continued. normally on berthed ships, but some delays occurred in the working of ships at buoys owing to communist intimidation of the crews of tugs and lighters. Although the strike caused some inconvenience to the public, the local community showed its usual resilience, and life went on very much as usual, despite claims to the contrary in the communist press. Efforts to stop intimidation and improve the security of key installations were increased, and on 24th June the Emergency (Prevention of Intimidation) Regulations and the Emergency (Closed Areas) Regulations were promulgated. The majority of employers affected by the strike, following the pattern so successfully established earlier in the month, dismissed their strikers, and in some cases offered reinstatement on a selective basis.
19.
The relative failure of the general strike occurred despite the fact that communist labour circles were financially better off than ever before, and payments by Unions before the strike began are known to have run to more than five million dollars. This emphasis on financial inducement hardly complied with the attacks in China on the evils of economism, and it must have been even more galling to the communists that so much was spent to such little effect.
20.
As was expected, the start of the general strike was marked by supporting pronouncements from China which were given wide publicity in the local communist newspapers. The "People's Daily" called on workers and patriots in Hong Kong to give the British imperialists "a taste of the iron fists of the Chinese working class". At a banquet in Feking, Fremier Chou En-lai referred to the seige of the R.P.W.G.U. premises and the strike, and stated that the Chinese people were determined to give every support to patriots in Hong Kong, "in accordance with the needs of the situation".
21
In the border area demonstrations on the Chinese side had been well controlled and no attempts had been made by demonstrators to cross the border into B.T. A change was seen on 24th June when, following a meeting held at the Sha Tau Kok Rural Committee premises (B.T.) attended by villagers from both sides of the border, a crowd of 500 demonstrators were stopped by police from marching into the village.
A crowd of 200 from Chinese
Territory including Chinese nationals, then swarmed across the border line, and attacked the police with stones and bottles, later surrounding the police post and setting fire to a police vehicle parked nearby. Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd, and nine persons were arrested. During the incident, border guards manned machine guns in Chinese Territory, but made no attempt to interfere. About 100 villagers from B.T. fled to Chinese territory after the incident and had not returned by the end of the month. A C.P.G. diplomatic note handed to the British Charge d'Affaires in Peking on 26th June, the first since confrontation began, repeated the four demands of 15th May, (see paragraph 4 L.I.C. May), and protested over police action at Sha Tau Kok during which, it was alleged, gas shells had been fired into C.T. This note was of some significance in that the demands and protest were made to a diplomatic level. However, there was no evidence of change in the C.P.G.'s general attitude to Hong Kong and the local communist leadership must have realised fully that they would have to rely on their own efforts if their confrontation was to succeed.
SECRET
/22.
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