00052 G.F. 316
SECRET
20
Copy No. 1
From:
SAVINGRAM
The Officer Administering the
Government, Hong Kong.
Repeated:
P.A. to C. in C. F.E.
37
To:
The Secretary of State for
Commonwealth Affairs.
Peking
Tamsui
No:
1377
Manila
5528
37
14
10
Date:
July 21st, 1967.
C. in C.F.E.
Misc. 112
Ref:
TS 2/57 III
1.
L.I.C. MONTHLY INTERNAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT
MAY, 1967.
It was not unexpected that the unease prevailing in
the field of industrial relations in the Colony at the end of
April would create an atmosphere where one or more of the disputes would escalate to the point when only a spark would be needed to
start an outbreak of widespread disorder.
2.
At the beginning of May, the management and labour of
two major factories were simultaneously in dispute and at the same
time there were lesser disagreements in several other commercial
undertakings, some of which were already many weeks old. At the
same time several disquieting developments took place. Pro- Communist union members began to adopt an increasingly aggressive and militant attitude, not only towards managements but also towards
other employees of the undertakings in which they worked. Even more
serious was the fact that this attitude was also directed against the Government of Hong Kong and in particular against the Hong Kong
Police Force. As the days went by, it became apparent that there was
a trend towards greater cohesion and joint action on the part of the pro-Communists in terms of moral, financial and physical support
of workers on strike. In the left-wing press the Communists began describing the disputes in terms of a single issue, political rather than economic, and considerable emphasis was placed upon the confrontation developing between "the British Authorities in Hong Kong", and the "Chinese Nationals of Hong Kong" on the lines of the
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