on occasions by straw effigies hung on traffic lights or other convenient places and purporting to represent the Governor and other leading members of the community. To discourage removal, these effigies were often decorated with bombs, real and simulated.
167. Many of the leaders of confrontation were drawn from news- paper and film-making circles and newspapermen in particular appear to have enjoyed the special favour of the Peking Government. Com- munist reporters were actively engaged in support of confrontation and in subversive actions which went far beyond what could be accepted as their proper duties. But when they were arrested for these activities there was a sharp reaction. In July the Peking Government protested to Her Majesty's Government over the arrest of an employee of the New China News Agency, who was later convicted of unlawful assembly. The protest was rejected and in retaliation Reuter's representative at Peking was put under house arrest; he was still under arrest and denied all visitors at the end of December. In August other communist reporters were arrested for criminal activities. Later in the month three minor communist newspapers which had been particularly virulent in their attacks on Government were suppressed; five people concerned in edit- ing, publishing and printing them were prosecuted for sedition (one editor evaded arrest) and the papers were suspended for six months. This evoked a further protest from the Peking Government which demanded, on 20th August, that within 48 hours the editors concerned and all communist reporters arrested must be unconditionally released and action against the newspapers withdrawn. This protest was also rejected and retaliatory action was taken, again not against Hong Kong, but against the office of the British Chargé d'Affaires in Peking which was sacked by a mob on 22nd August. There followed the curious incident in London in which the staff of the Chinese Chargé d'Affaires set upon the Police on some trivial pretext. This was presumably intended as an 'incident', complete with feigned injuries, to demonstrate to the people in China that diplomatic staff in other countries as well were liable to attacks.
168. Communist propaganda reached its peak in May and June. One of its main objectives had been to enlist the active support of the Peking Government in the struggle in Hong Kong and the exaggerated reports of the strength of the support for confrontation as well as of the "brutal persecution' by the authorities were designed to that end. Any
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