TNAG-0118-FCO40-154-Disturbances-1967-1968-1969 — Page 83

there were posters on the gates of Kowloon wharf, on lighters moored off shore and on other vessels.

55. The removal of these posters sparked off a series of incidents. Crews from the Star Ferry stopped work on the evening of 6th June. A delegation asked for an interview with the General Manager but would not agree to limit its numbers to the thirty stipulated. In this impasse the company decided, on the afternoon of the 7th, to dismiss all absentee workers and on the following day invited applications for re-registration for employment. This met with a good response and a limited service, with three vessels, was restarted from noon on the 10th.

56. At Tai Koo Dockyard, the company's launches were covered with posters on 6th June. The coxswains were ordered to remove them and an incident developed in which the General Manager and the Shipyard Manager were surrounded and detained for some hours by a hostile crowd of workers armed with iron bars. The next day the dockyard was closed and 160 men were dismissed.

57. Trouble at the Waterworks Office began on 30th May when two-hour token strikes were organized in the main depots at Argyle Street and Bullock Lane. On 7th June there was a dispute at Argyle Street Depot over the removal of inflammatory posters the previous evening, and the next day, when interdiction notices were handed out to those who had taken part in the token strike of 30th May and the incident of 7th June, about 250 men stopped work and marched off the premises. With the threat of dismissal if they continued to absent themselves, 122 applied for permission to return to work and all but 8 were allowed to do so. Workers at the Hong Kong depot, at Bullock Lane, had planned similar action for the 9th June but, after being inter- viewed by a senior engineer with Police standing by in case of trouble, they agreed to continue work.

58. At the Public Works Department Caroline Hill Workshops there had been an incident on 22nd May when work largely came to a stand- still, ostensibly because of the removal of posters. After three senior officers agreed to explain the position to the workers, about 300 of the latter barricaded the senior officers and themselves in the canteen. They were ejected and the officers released when the Police were called and broke down a door. On 7th June a notice was issued interdicting from duty four of the leaders in this incident. On the following day steps

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