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G.F. 323
CONFIDENTIAL
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the population put up with the discomfort with remarkable patience and cheer-
fulness despite communist attempts to exploit the situation. The position
however was critical; any further reduction in the supply period would have
ocen almost unsupportable and would in any case have been unlikely to reduce
materially the rate of consumption. Various possibilities were considered of
obtaining additional water from other sources but they offered little hope of
success.
By good fortune there was timely rain in mid July which eased the
situation, and further heavy rain in mid August and September. At the end of
September it was possible to revert to a four hour daily supply and with the
resumption of water from China on 1st October at the beginning of a new supply
period the full twenty-four hour supply was reinstated.
In order to conserve supplies however saline water from Flover Cove has
been added to the water issued for general consumption. The resulting mixture,
although salty to the taste, is below the maximum limit recommended by the
World Health Organisation and it has no ill-effects. It has however provided
the communists with the opportunity to work up a campaign against this 'contam-
ination.
They have also seized upon the adjustments male to the exchange rates
by Great Britain for the Hong Kong dollar following the devaluation of sterling/and propaganda
on this issue and on the salinity of the water provided the main themes for
their newspaper and radio coverage for several weeks. The tone of this prop-
aganda was nowever noticeably more moderate: the arguments were carefully
presented and were designed to attract the support of those sections of the
population which were most closely concerned. This departure from the violent
language used by the communist press in previous months as well as the apparent
cessation of physical violence may well indicate that a new phase of confrontation
has begun. SHong Kong has no quarrel with China, nor indeed with the communicts
as such. It is not an offence to be a communist (or to belong to any other
political party), nor to practise the doctrines and beliefs of communism, although
it is an offence to translate these beliefs into action that conflicts with the law.
The Government has taken action against the supporters of confrontation
>
not because of their political beliefs, as the communist press has asserted,
but simply because they have broken the law. Its basic aim and policy throughout
has been to preserve law and order and to regain for the Colony its traditional
role of providing a place for people to live and work in peace whatever their race or political belief
CONFIDENTIAL
/18.
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