TNAG-0642-FCO40-790-Kowloon-Walled-City-and-aircraft-safety-in-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 47

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CONFIDENTIAL

24.

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allegedly deported from Hong Kong in the 1950's for triad activities. Chan Nan-fat operates a dental clinic employing an unregistered dentist.

It is commonly believed that syndicates or triad elements arc behind the criminal activities, such as gambling dens and drug dens, in the Walled City. However, we find it difficult to prove the existence of, let alone identify these syndicates or triad elements. Nonetheless, there are certainly triad elements and gangsters operating in this area, and robbery cases have increased in recent months (18).

Political Affiliations

25.

Although the majority of Walled City residents can safely be classified as politically apathetic, a rough spectrum of their political attitudes can still be made. A minority of the Walled City residents are pronounced leftists. The rest of the Walled City residents are mainly centralists who prefer not to involve themselves in politics. But like most of the so-called centralists in Hong Kong, they do show some tendencies towards either side of the spectum. The general impression of people who work in the Walled City is that about 2/3 are sympathetic with the Taiwan government and the rest with the Peking government. The reason given for this apparent preponderance of sympathy for Taiwan was that a substantial number of Walled City residents have either themselves, or their relatives, been badly treated in the process of the CPG's ascent to power in 1949.

Political Organisations

26.

The pronounced leftist elements in the Walled City have organic themselves into the Kowloon Walled City Kaifong Welfare Promotion Committee which is, in fact, the only political organisation existing in the Walled City. This organisation evolved from the United Kowloon Walled City Residents Anti-Clearance Comites. formed in 1962 in an organised effort to resist Government clearance operations in this locality. After the dispute was settled, the Anti-clearance Committee later re-named itself as the present Kowloon Walled City Kaifong Welfare Promotion Committee. To this day, this Committee has remained unregister

CONFIDENTIAL