0003160 G.F. 316
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its early days, thus it never became the force it could well
have been. A major reason for this failure has been the
hawkers' disenchantment with MA Man Fai, possibly because a
large number of them came to realise that the whole scheme
was merely a tool for MA's aggrandizement. Whilst there has
been considerable effort to bring the Hawkers' Committee and
its aims into the public eye by organising conducted tours
of hawker areas for visiting M.P.s and by preparing
petitions and deputations to the authorities in Hong Kong, it
has in fact achieved little more than obtaining publicity for
its leading personalities. It is known that several of the
Hawker District Committees were communist-infiltrated
immediately after their inception, i.e. those representing
hawkers in the Tang Lung Chau, Kowloon City, Mongkok and
Wanchai Districts. As early as 1964, communist elements on
the Tang Lung Chau Committee incited hawker opposition to the
Tang Lung Market scheme and although unsuccessful in their
effort the same personalities are still extremely influential
in this area. Similarly, in late 1967, communist elements
of the Kowloon City Committee unsuccessfully attempted to
organise hawker oppostion to a resitement plan in the Kowloon
City Market area. It would appear, therefore, that although
the communists have successfully infiltrated several U.N.A.H.K. Hawker Committees to some extent, they never achieved any
real success in organising anti-Government activities through this body.
VII Conclusions
18.
The 60,000 hawkers who are operating in the Colony
clearly consider that they provide an essential public
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