TNAG-0328-FCO40-364-Activities-of-New-Left-groups-amongst-students-and-youth-of--1973 — Page 32

OUR REF:

YOUR REF:

NTIRMI

Capy Sent to

Mire T

t. Richeng H

International

HKFS

hong kong federation of students

香 港 專 上 學生聯會

23c waterloo road, kowloon hong kong

Special Information Release

九龍窩打老道 十三號C

telephone k-888137 telegram "HKFSTUDENT "

RIGHT TO BE PROVIDED WITH DECENT LIVING ENVIROMENT

RIGHT TO RAISE REASONABLE REQUESTS AND OPINIONS THROUGH PEACEFUL PROTESTS AND DEMONSTRATIONS !

On September 4, our President, Thomas Leung and nine other students were arrested with more than a hundred residents of Yan Yi Resite Village during a peaceful sit-in held in Central by the village residents to petition for resettlement which the Government had promised four years ago. In the morming of September 4, the residents of the above village called a press conference announcing their decisions to deliver written petitions to the Resettlement Department and the Governor once every two days until satisfactory reply is given by the authorities concern. On the same day," the villagers made several attempts to contact the City District Officers and the Squatters Control Section of the Resettlement Department. Nothing came out of these attempts.

Thus, the villagers decided to deliver the first of the series of petitions on September 5, the following day. The petition column, compris- ing about three hundred of the residents in the Village started off at about ten o'clock in the morning. At about noon time the petitioners had crossed the harbour and stopped for lunch outside the City Hall in Central District. In the column were men, woman, boys, girls, aged and badies. They had journeyed streneously from their houses in Kowloon Tong area on the other side of the harbour.. Because of over-exhaustion, many refused to move further up to the Governor's House on mid-levels to deliver the petition. A decision was reached that four representatives would go up to deliver the petition on behalf of the residents while the others would sit and wait for their reply.

Evening came. Students had been delivering food, water and blankets to sit-in petitioners and doing whatever was necessary to help the women, the aged and the young. At about eight in the evening, the police which had been keeping an eye on the column began issuing warnings that the column was an illegal assembly. The warnings were ignored by the villagers who believed that they were prusuing a just cause, At about nine, arrest began. Among those arrested were our President and our Local Affairs Sec- retary. Eight other students were also arrested. The villager petitioners were badies in their arms. Altogether about a hundred and twenty people were arrested.

The Background of the Issue

Residents living in various districts of Kowloon peninsulaf have from time to time been forced by the Government to leave their homes for various feasons and be resited in 'Resite Areas'. Four years ago the same sory dawned upon the people who are now staying in Yan Yi Resite village. The Government on removing the people to the village promised to resettle the residents within eighteen months. In fact, all resite areas are consi- dered to be temporary residential areas and the residents would oneday' ba resettled in Resettlement Estates. Owing largely to the above fact,