CC. Hongkong Dept.
Mr. I.M. Sinclair,
Legal Advisers.
Study on Peaceful Settlements of Disputes.
Friction in Hong Kong
we
1967.
12
We have seen the comments made by Hong Kong and Far Eastern Departments and are in agreement with them. We have the following additional points to make:-
Page 1, paragraphs 1 and 2.
The background to the outbreak of
disturbances in Hong Kong was not a deterioration in Anglo-Chinese relations. There had been no indication of any change in those relations. The background was the Cultural Revolution in China primarily, and the example of its overspill into Macau. Communists in Hong Kong took their cue, it seems spontaneously, from these events and tried locally to develop a revolutionary situation, no doubt in the hope that a situation similar to that in Macau could be achieved. The influence of Macau should be made clear at the beginning of the study.
The Chinese Government inevitably took notice of the disturbances in Hong Kong, and some references were made to Hong Kong being used as a base for United States action in Viet-Nam, but the war was not made a major issue in the Hong Kong crisis. It seems unlikely that the crisis was provoked by China as a warning to Britain against further involvement in the war.
Page 1, paragraph 3.
The Hong Kong situation no doubt provided China with propaganda for internal use in rallying the people, but this does not mean that a new "object of struggle" was deliberately created. As has been pointed out, the troubles in Hong Kong were an overspill of the Cultural Revolution, and, it seems, a follow-up of the earlier outburst in
Macau.
Page 2, paragraph 1.
The internal disturbances in China were of varying kinds and did reach serious proportions, but, again, the origin of those in Hong Kong Was the example of conducting "struggle" against authority
K
in Hong Kong "imperialist"
authority rather than the need to distract attention from the internal situation in China.
/Page 3, paragraph 1.
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