TNAG-0798-FCO40-1002-Dispute-over-closure-of-Precious-Blood-Golden-Jubilee-Second-1978 — Page 159

CONFIDENTIAL

Mr Quantrill

Mr McLaren

Reference... HKK 280

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO. 51

0 5 JUN 1978

DESK OFFICER

INDEX

REGISTRY

PA

Action

ken

по

47

TROUBLES AT THE PRECIOUS BLOOD SECONDARY SCHOOL

1. The Precious Blood Golden Jubilee Secondary School is a Government-aided school in Ho Man Tin run by Catholic sisters. Following months of unrest, the Acting Director of Education, Mr Haye, closed the school on 14 May.

2. The previous principal of the school, a Sister Leung, had appointed a number of left-wing teachers and left the running of the school to one of them, who later apparently tried to blackmail her. She resigned, having been found guilty of fiddling the books. The Education Department audited the school accounts and engaged tighter discipline, which led to mass demonstrations in June last year. The Director of Education sent warning letters to 35 teachers who had taken an active part in organising the protests. Sixteen teachers later asked for these letters to be withdrawn, falsely claiming that they had been victimised for revealing the mismanagement of the school.

3. The Director of Education's refusal to withdraw the warning letters led to increased agitation, and the new principal, Miss Hilda Kwan, her Deputy and "loyal" teachers were harrassed and intimidated. The 16 teachers have led further demonstrations by pupils demanding the resignation of the principal, accusing her of being "fascist" and the school of being "corrupt". This disrupted the normal working of the school, and necessitated its closure. The Roman Catholic Bishop of Hong Kong and ExCo endorsed the decision to close the school.

4.

The Committee of Enquiry, led by Dr Rayson Huang, was appointed on 16 May to make recommendations to the Governor on how to avoid further trouble, and the Catholic authorities decided to open a new catholic mission school in September on the existing premises, retaining Miss Kwen as principal.

5. Demonstrations have continued with public and press opinion in Hong Kong being almost equally divided. Most sympathy has gone to the students whose education has been disrupted, and there is little public support for the 16 teachers. However, some of these teachers had approached ICAC on 1 February 1977, which has somewhat confused the issue. Some radical senior students have arranged "tutorial" classes for Precious Blood students and in answer to this the Education Department has offered to find places for pupils in other schools for the rest of the academic year; and over 2/3rds of the school's pupils are now continuing classes in Government schools.

6. There has been no UK Parliamentary, press or public interest in the disturbances.

CODE 18. 77

2 June 1978

M J Upton

las

Hong Kong & General Dept