TNAG-0186-FCO40-222-Special-branch-reports-on-Communist-activities-1969 — Page 42

0003160 G.F. 316

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membership and scope; at least 22 area representatives have

already been established in areas where hawkers are con-

centrated and in Resettlement Estates. A recruitment and

fund-raising campaign was launched in July, 1968, designed to

increase membership and to hasten the establishment of a

branch office in Hong Kong; it was subsequently claimed that

this drive resulted in over 1,000 new members being recruited

and in $100,000 being raised through hawkers and commercial

concerns. The campaign, without doubt, achieved a certain

measure of success; however, it seems probable that the new

members were attracted more by the material benefits

offered to members than by political motivation; indeed,

information received in January, 1969, revealed that the

Society was offering members the following, not unattractive,

inducements:·

(a) a loan of $300 with no time limit specified for

(b)

(c)

(a)

repayment;

compensation in the event of arrest and confis-

cation of goods;

assistance for other hawkers in the district if

"persecuted" by the Hawker Control Force (H.C.F.)

or Police;

eligibility for $20,000 worth of goods on credit

if allocated a shop in a resettlement estate;

(e) eligibility for $15,000 worth of merchandise on

credit if allocated a meat shop.

All goods mentioned were China products and no direct

financial assistance other than the initial loan was

mentioned.

13.

In August, 1968, the Society asked the help of

the communist-controlled Federation of Trade Unions (F.T.U.)

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