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Hong Kong telegram No. 1328 to Commonwealth Office (D.T.D.)
(419) HUBILIT
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(3) Appearance of "Mosquito" Broadsheets.
(4)
(5)
Following the suspension of the three newspapers, single sheet Gestetnered pamphlets started to appear on 22 August (over 150 different titles have now been seen), reproducing items from the main papers. They are reing widely distributed free, including a large number by post to Government officers. On 23 August at least one named six prominent personalities as targets for assassination (Y.K. Kan and F.S. Li, Executive Councillors Paul Tsui, Acting Secretary for Chinese Affairs, the Chairman of the Heung Yee Kuk, and an Editor and a Publisher of the anti- Communist Press). A small warning parcel bomb was posted to the first maned the same day but was detected and safely disposed of. These Mosquito papers are being covertly produced in widely scattered premises, some undoubtedly in CPG owned premises such as those of the major newspapers, Chinese Commercial Press and Peace Book Company. The Broadsheet articles, by being repeated in Communist and to some extent by anti- Communist newspapers, are receiving enhanced publicity.
Criminal activities of Reporters.
The police are continually coming up against NCNA and Communist newspaper reporters in suspicious circumstances or actively involved in demonstrations, incitement, and riot (see my telegram No. 1314 as an example). They naturally claim to be peacefully reporting but I am afraid their subsequent appearance in court is usually inevitable.
Communist Press Conference.
The Press Conference given to selected foreign
journalists by Fei Yi Man of Ta Kung Pao and others on 22 August is largely unexplained. It may have aimed at winning support overseas against the suspension of the three newspapers. It also tried to deny Communist complicity in the murder of the two children by a bomb and to attribute it to the "Chiang elements" or a British "plant"
2. We were at first inclined to attach little importance to the new style Mosquito Broadsheets as lacking of authority and being of limited distribution and appeal and go a rather poor substitute for supressed newspapers. Their use, however, as a means to indicate assassination targets and to issue terrorist warnings changes the situation. We are now considering emergency regulations which would make their production, distribution and
/possession
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