G.F. 316
SECRET
7
Copy No.
SAVINGRAM
From:
The Governor, Hong Kong.
Repeated:
To:
The Secretary of State for
Commonwealth Affairs
P.A. to C. in C.F.E.
15
No:
504
Peking
Tamsui
11
6
Date:
March 9th, 1967.
Ref:
TS.2/57 III
1.
L.I.C. MONTHLY EXTRNAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT
FEBRUARY 1967
The
A poster brought back by a person who visited Canton over the Lunar New Year holidays referred to a meeting of 92 units of the Red Flag Workers' Militia on 11th February, to debate the seizure of power in Canton by the Provincial Federation of Revolutionary Groups. The seizure was said to have been approved by a majority of participating groups, but on the following day the Red Flag Workers Militia withdrew from the Federation. poster was issued by student units from two Canton universities in protest against the withdrawal. On 17th February, the Canton Daily referred to the Kwangtung Frovincial Party Committee having been taken over on the 22nd January, by a United Committee of Revolutionary Rebels, but Red Guard newspapers and posters described the seizure of power in Canton as no more than symbolic. Travellers from Canton on 19th February, spoke of fighting between various groups of Red Guards in the city on that day.
2.
Another instance of dissatisfaction on the part of Red Guards with those presently in authority in Canton was noted by another Hong Kong resident who visited the mainland as a member of one of several left-wing groups which spent the Lunar New Year holidays in Canton. He spoke of an entertainment staged by the Canton revolutionaries in honour of the visiting groups, and said that in the opinion of most of the members of his group, it was not as adulatory of MAO as others which they had attended. At the end of the performance a group of Red Guards mounted the stage and explained that it had been their intention to put on the entertainment, but that they had been prevented from doing so by the "revolution- aries" in power who staged their entertainment instead. The Red Guards claimed that they had already "dissolved" the revolutionary committee, and they drew the visitors' attention to the reactionary character of the performance they had witnessed.
5.
Reports about the food situation in Canton are conflicting. Visitors from Hong Kong over the Lunar New Year period said that foodstuffs were plentiful and moderately priced, but many visitors from the mainland during the month have spoken of high prices and shortages of foodstuffs and clothing, and of the introduction of a form of rationing. Many recent visitors from Hong Kong are said to have taken in food and clothing for relatives. Travellers and letters from the rural areas indicated the foodstuffs are not in such short supply in the country districts, but have spoken of the hoarding of food against expected shortages in the future.
4.
Since the 1962 influx of illegal immigrants, the normal attitude of the C.P.G. authorities at the Lo Wu Border
RECEIVED IN
ARCHIVES No. 63 14 MAR1967
HWB13/4
SECRET
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