8
REVIEW
amount of nuisance value, particularly those in the transport field, but they caused no lasting inconvenience.
On June 1, emergency regulations were made strengthening the law against the display of inflammatory posters and action was taken to remove them from government buildings and elsewhere. In the doctrine of the cultural revolution street posters are regarded almost as sacrosanct as being the visible expression of the will of 'the masses', and in Hong Kong they were defended with the utmost tenacity.
Some impetus was given to the force of this reaction by an editorial in the Peking People's Daily of June 3, which called on the Chinese in Hong Kong 'to organize a courageous struggle against the British and to be ready to respond to the call of the motherland for smashing the reactionary rule of the British'. The article also stressed that the working class in Hong Kong was to remain the main force in the struggle, but in Hong Kong the communist press chose to interpret it as a declaration of active support by the Peking Government and gave it wide publicity. Employees of the Star Ferry Company stopped work in protest at the removal of posters. At the Taikoo Dockyard the general manager and two senior staff members were surrounded and held prisoner by their employees. Workers at the government electrical and mechanical workshops, in Kowloon, and at the nearby Kowloon depot of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, barricaded the door and armed them- selves with iron bars and other offensive weapons. Police forced their way into both premises and arrested more than 500 workers, of whom 120 were charged with various offences. There were stoppages of work in other concerns and numerous scuffles and minor incidents occurred at several other places throughout the Colony. The People's Daily provided more fuel for the flames on June 10 by urging workers, peasants, the Peoples Liberation Army and the 'revolutionary masses' in China to prepare to support the struggle in Hong Kong with concrete action. Broadcasts on similar lines were put out by Radio Peking.
On June 23 there was another major incident. A small police party, photographing posters in Canton Road, was suddenly at- tacked by a gang of men armed with iron bars, bottles and sharpened files. The police, in self-defence, opened fire with their revolvers and
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.