0003160 G.F. 316
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were. This looks like another protest very much for the record.
8.
There has been some increase in illegal immigration possibly as a result of developments in the Cultural Revolution in Kwangtung. As paragraphs 4 and 5 of the L. I.C. Report for February suggest, we may be getting into difficulties over the number of illegal immigrants who refuse to be repatriated. At the end of March a group of thirteen was presented at the border three times but refused each time to go over and were therefore eventually released in Hong Kong. This is becoming an increasingly frequent occurrence; and especially as refugees have recently shouted abuse at the C. P. G. frontier guards when refusing to return, it may well lead to trouble.
9.
On 27 February members of the Chinese commune at She Hau in Deep Bay pursued a group of illegal immigrants into British territory at Lau Fau Shan and demanded their immediate return. They took the line that they had the right to engage in hot pursuit and to demand repatriation of illegal immigrants by force if necessary. They were told by the police that the immigrants would be dealt with in accordance with normal practice and returned, if they were returned, via Lowu. On 9 March, after these illegal immigrants had been released because of their close personal connections in the Colony, the commune members returned to make further noisy and demonstrative protests, and threats to take the refugees back to China by force. The matter was riased on two occasions with an unofficial contact in the New China News Agency, who took an unrepentant line, arguing that the illegal immigrants were thieves (since they had stolen a sampan from the commune) and that commune members were likely to take the same action again in future. Our warnings about the risks involved in these incidents may have had some effect however, since in spite of threats to the contrary the commune members had not again returned by the end of March.
10.
There was trouble again in oyster bed No. 5 in Deep Bay. An attempt was made on March 22, by members of the Fu Hsing commune to abduct three oyster farmers from British territory who were working on the bed. After a few hours' detention on a junk in the Bay, however, they were released. The one hopeful feature of this incident was that the District Officer Yuen Long managed at long last to speak direct with some of the commune members on the junk and got apparent, though grudging, agreement from them to have talks with Hong Kong representatives about the difficulties arising on the bed.
11.
According to a usually reliable source there was a struggle for power in Canton early in the month in which rival groups calling themselves "revolutionaries" fought for the control of party and administrative organisations. Mass demonstrations of support took place in Canton on 15 March following the announcement of the establishment of a Kilitary Control Committee and its assumption of authority at the expense of the Canton City and Kwangtung Provincial governmental organs. It appears that at least the public aspects of the struggle ended with the establishment of this Committee, and that from 15 March, Canton was firmly under military control. We have no evidence yet about
It the political leanings of the men now in power in Canton. would certainly be wrong to assume that they must be supporters of Chairman Mao. Officials of the two principal communist newspapers in Hong Kong, who had been invited to Canton to take part in discussion meetings held by their joint office there, found the staff of the office torn by internal dissension, and its activities suspended. Representatives from the newspapers who visited Canton earlier in February to discover what was taking place had been told they were unwelcome and consequently they
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