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18. From assassination they turned to bombs, sometimes specifically directed against the police and other targets but more usually placed at random in busy thoroughfares. These "bombs varied in degree. Most of them were harmless imitations; many of the explosive ones contained only gunpowder extracted from fireworks and consequently were more noisy than dangerous; some were deadly. There was no way of distinguishing one from another and the same precautions, with consequent frustrating disruptions of traffic in the vicinity, had to be applied to all. They came to be accepted as an additional hazard of life and they had little effect on this bustling and energetic community; indeed, people who would have been horrified at the thought of bombs six months ago, now calmly drove round them. But the casualties that they caused, which included children and other innocent passers-by, reduced still further the support for the perpetrators, and popular demands were made for more severe punishment to be inflicted on those responsible.
19. The phase of bomb attacks came to a climax in October and November, when the disposal teams were quite seriously stretched, and to an end in December -the last explosive bomb being found on Christmas Day. Since the campaign began the police and armed services bomb disposal teams dealt with 8,074 suspected bombs of which 1,167 were genuine. There were 253 uncontrolled bomb explosions which caused the death of 15 people of whom two were policemen and one an army sergeant. Four men died through the explosion of bombs that they themselves were carrying. The total casualties from confrontation at this date were 51 dead, of whom 10 were policemen, and 832 injured, of whom 212 were also policemen.
20. A later disquieting feature was the increasing employment of children in confrontation activities including holding noisy demonstrations, distributing inflammatory literature, and carrying and planting bombs. Their truculent attitudes gave an impression of strength far beyond their actual number, which is about 18,000 pupils or some 2 per cent of the total school population. Communist schools have been used as centres for Communist activities and police raids on them have unearthed stocks of inflammatory literature as well as bombs, both simulated and real. On 27 November a youth was seriously injured by an explosion at one of these schools while trying to manufacture explosive material for bombs, and the school was closed. This action led to a protest by the CPG, which affected to believe that the closure amounted to persecution of those who wished to study Mao's Thoughts-an activity which has in fact throughout remained legal and permissible. The Communist schools present a difficult and sensitive problem but there are indications that this incident had some effect in restraining their excesses.
21. After the Sha Tau Kok affair the border area remained unsettled and there was a succession of minor incidents, mostly arising from the passage of villagers across the border at the road bridge at Man Kam To and at other places. At the end of September two police constables who had inadvertently crossed the border while off duty were detained by the Chinese authorities. In mid-October a senior police inspector was seized by a group of villagers near the border at Man Kam To and was hustled across the Chinese territory. After this latter incident the bridge at Man Kam To was closed by us, for the second time. This inevitably led to protests as before from the Chinese side, which claimed that villagers had the right to cross at this point at any time they chose to cultivate their land on the British side.
22. At the suggestion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Peking, a series of discussions was held in November with Chinese border officials. These discussions dealt with the closure of the Man Kam To bridge, the release of the policemen detained and other border matters. After prolonged negotiations, it was agreed that the bridge would be reopened and an ex gratia award of some $75,000 paid to the Chinese farmers who had been unable to cultivate their fields in British territory because of the closure; and that the three policemen would be exchanged for five Chinese nationals who had been arrested for various offences in British territory. The inspector in fact contrived to escape, after being detained for 36 days, and succeeded in making his way back to the Colony. The exchange of the other two policemen was duly effected.
23. In China conditions steadily deteriorated during the summer. In many areas the bitter struggles for power among rival factions led to conditions of near chaos. During July and August, when the battle between the warring factions
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