"friends. For the c slogans are not enough Indeed one youth from
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nist, however, words and deeds are what count. communist school said that
in his school a student's conduct was far more important than his acad......ic record. Another prisoner explained: "Although the workers do not understand communist theory too well, when it comes to action, they are far better than intellectuals, and a communist is judged according to his deeds," They make no apology for the methods they employed last year: "Violence is necessary and inevitable Look at the students of Europe, they use violence too,"
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"The nationalist strain in them seems to be much stronger than the communist, in very much the same way that Mao appears to be primarily a Chinese first and a communist second. Very often, communist prisoners spoke of "Chinese" instead of "worker". Over and over again, I was told: "Hongkong was acquired as the result of an unequal treaty. Its existence is an insult to racial pride and self-respect ..... We, Chinese, are oppressed and exploited."
A young teen- ager who worked as a messenger in a dockyard and whose father, also a dockyard worker, had been sacked, complained: "There is no security for the life of the ordinary man in the street."
'
"They took a strong line on the place of Europeans in Hongkong: "The kwai lo (foreign devils) hold the reins of economic and political power and they use it to further the interests of their own country. They never have the interests of the residents of Hongkong at heart." They cited as examples: "The modern pop-in organised by the Urban Council is an attempt to degenerate the next generation. They are persuaded not to have any racial pride." An electron- ics graduate from one of the technical schools remarked: "The whole education system is aimed at depriving people of their racial self-respect. It plans to convince the next generation that they aze not Chinese, that they do not love their own country." Strong nationalist attitudes come out most clearly on the subject of "running dogs". The communist attitude was generally one of "forgiveness". have been used. They have been manipulated by the Hongkong British; they are not the motive force." However, when talking of violence, one prisoner said: "Running dogs like Lam Bun (the radio person- ality burnt to death last year) deserve to be punished."
"They
"Would the communist prisu...s be content to live under the British flag if they could be shown that the Government is benevolent and has the real interests of the people at heart? One typical answer was: "Ons of course, one would be content to live in a colony if the Government were good. But a colonial government by definition is not for the people. A colony, by definition, cannot have a good, humane and uncorrupt government."
"If
"They attach great importance to the events of last May. "If there were no labour dispute and no 'San- pokong'incident' last May, would you still have embarked on the 'struggle'?" "No," said one. the labour dispute had been dealt with fairly and justly by the Labour Department, everything would have been fine. Instead the Hongkong British sent
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