CONFIDENTIAL
COLONIAL SECRETARIAT.
HONG KONG.
22)
AVID INN RGN.51
Our Ref: CR LM 312/72
Your Ref: HKK 1/22
NxX1/22
21
***
Dear Lick
NEXT
REF.
22nd November, 1972.
Enter Miss Kaft Dr Crowson
Many thanks for your letter of the 9th November (just received) about Yan Yi Villagers and Resettlement Policy.
There are, of course, two rather separate aspects to this matter:
2.
3.
(i) whether the Yan Yi Villagers should have been
resettled before now; and
(ii) whether the people who took part in the protest
meeting should have been arrested.
The first question is perhaps best answered by
R+R
f.n.a. p'se note X
the enclosed copy of a letter which the Acting Commissioner for Resettlement sent to the Editors of the South China Morning Post and the Hong Kong Standard on the 8th September, shortly after the protest meeting. I think that the letter is self-explanatory, but do please let me know if any further background information would be of use to you.
4.
more
The second question is perhaps rather difficult, in that one cannot answer it without making a judgment about the need for and appropriateness of the action taken by the Police Officer in charge on the spot at the time. I am therefore enclosing a factual account prepared by the Police, which explains what happened. In commenting on it, I should perhaps say some of us felt it was a pity that the obstruction was judged to be so serious as to warrant arrest when this was what the demonstrators so obviously wanted. The ringleaders were nevertheless, as you will see, taken to Court and were bound over for a year although no convictions were recorded against them. This seems to us a very reasonable outcome.
You may incidentally be interested to know that of the 126 persons arrested, 112 were residents of
5.
/the.
Des
28/11
R.B. Crowson, Esq.,
Hong Kong and Indian Ocean Department,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
LONDON, S.W.1.
CONFIDENTIAL
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