TNAG-0292-FCO40-328-Disturbances-in-Hong-Kong-bomb-attacks-and-threats-1971 — Page 28

RE. ED IN

REGISTRY No. 51 10 AUG 1971

MIKILI/IG

S. S. Lin

PontiaN AND US,

- 9 AUG 1971

5328 S. Greenwood Chicago, Illinois 60615

U.

S.

August 3, 1971

A.

'0"

Sir Alec Douglas-Home Foreign Secretary British Government

London, Great Britain

Dear Sir:

PA

In the late afternoon of July 7, some 500 college students in Hong Kong staged a peaceful demonstration in Victoria Park to protest against the Japanese claim over the Tiao-yu-t'ai islands. They were met by policemen of approximately equal number. Around 7:15 p.m., a confrontation followed. Scores of students and innocent bystanders were clubbed and seriously injured and 21 demonstrators were arrested and detained by the police.

The bloodshed was absolutely unnecessary. The students had made a series of concessions in trying to follow the instructions of the Hong Kong authorities. They had applied. for a permit. Even the site of demonstration was chosen upon the prior suggestion of the police last May. The denial of the permit by the Urban Council only a day before the scheduled demonstration date naturally led the demonstrators to suspect that the Hong Kong authorities had deliberately planned to embarrass them.

At the demonstration site, the students did control themselves. All they wanted to do on July 7 was to put up a peaceful demonstration against the Japanese government and that was all they did. There was absolutely no need to call in the riot-control squads for there was no riot. The confrontation that followed was triggered off mainly by the policemen, especially Superintendant Waley and the men under his command. They were impatient and brutal, and their behavior revealed the colonialist mentality of the British authority against the Chinese residents in Hong Kong. This mentality is universally condemned.

We, the Chinese students studying in Midwest American universities, strongly protest the savage treatment of the Chinese college students and people by the Hong Kong policemen in that incident. We support the three righteous demands made by the Federation of students in Hong Kong (immediate release of detained demonstrators; public apology by the Hong Kong authorities for that incident; dismissal of Superintendant Waley).

We urge you to guarantee that such an unfortunate incident will never happen in the future.

Ак

19.