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Throughout, the Hong-Kong authorities handled the situation tactfully. The restraint shown by the police in dealing with the demonstrators was evident to all. The authorities were, nevertheless, determined to maintain order and, on 23rd May, Emergency Ordinances were issued which drastically increased the penalties for violent behaviour. They were resolved to avoid a Macao-type humiliation. Talks were held between the Governor, Sir David Trench, and Sir Arthur Galsworthy, at the time Deputy Under-Secretary of state, Commonwealth office, and the rather intransigient attitude towards the demonstrators' demands continued. The British authorities probably calculated that the maintenance of the status quo was as much in Feking's intcrest as their own and that the Communists were trying to humiliate the British rather than either obtain the redress of genuine grievances, or drive them out of the Colony completely. The Macao precedent showed the pointlessness of any unilateral
concessions. Even if such calculations could not have been made the Hong-Kong
authorities would have had no alternative but to stand firm and attempt to govern rather than allow anarchy to develop.
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No explicit settlement was reached.. Nevertheless, by the late summer of 1967 the crisis was fading and China appeared to be dropping the issue. This retreat can be explained partly by political factors. The vast majority of the Colony's population not only refused to support, but proved openly hostile to the Communist demonstrators. As was pointed out "the discipline of the Hong-Kong police and the show of strength by the Commando Carrier Bulwark in the harbour certainly helped.. But it was the revulsion of the majority of the people of Hong-Kong more than anything else which made the Communists revise their
6 calculations."
In any case, the acute internal troubles in Canton province in July and August, and the chaos which this caused, would have made it difficult, if not impossible, for Mao to have stepped up the campaign on Hong-Kong even if he had
wished to.
The economic importance of the colony as a Chinese source of foreign exchange
must not be overlooked. In 1966 it was estimated that China supplied Hong-Kong
with £173 million's worth of goods, mostly perishables and water. In addition,
6. The Economist, 3rd June, 1967, p996.
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