backed up by about six other papers which not only followed their lead but at times ran to excesses of wild invention of their own. They had ample printing facilities for other propaganda material and the men and the equipment for newsreel production.
162. They also enjoyed considerable encouragement and assistance from the local office of the New China News Agency (Hsinhua) which is owned and directed by the Peking Government. This agency was largely responsible for directing the propaganda campaign in the Colony as could be seen from the identical reports of incidents that regularly appeared in communist newspapers, all attributed to the agency's reporters. It was also responsible for producing distorted accounts of the events in Hong Kong for the consumption of the authorities in Peking. Its highly-coloured and wildly exaggerated reports undoubtedly played a large part in inflaming opinion in China against the Government of the Colony.
163. In their campaign the communists employed every theme and every weapon, from deliberate distortion of facts and falsification of photographs to the spreading of rumours and the fabrication of non- existent incidents. Rumours put about by them ranged from the possible but untrue rice shortages, power or water stoppages-to the wildly improbable as for example the stories which appeared in minor com- munist newspapers, complete with photographs and maps, of Chinese gunboats approaching the Colony. Communist reporters and photog- raphers were present at every incident to produce their version of events; and in many cases demonstrations were organized solely for publicity purposes. During the phase of street demonstrations in May communist newspapers produced special editions which were distributed free to the crowds and which were designed to incite them to further violence. The same presses produced leaflets and booklets giving lurid accounts of Police 'brutality'.
164.
To a large extent these activities were countered by the presence and factual reports of the independent press in the Colony, local tele- vision and commercial wireless companies and particularly by the wide coverage given to events by the world press whose leading corre- spondents and photographers were in Hong Kong. To those in Hong Kong some of the reports published overseas may have seemed to lean towards the sensational but they effectively gave the lie to the com- munist distortions. Rumours, by their very nature, are more difficult to
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