}
SECRET
SOUTH EAST ASIA DEPTO FAR EASTERN DEPARTMENT
PART
FILE BEGINS
FILE TITLE
FACES PERIOD: 1954-1956
& Communist Propagandas
EA
FED
FILE NUMBER
79/400/04
Hong Kong
1124
INDEX HEADINGS
Communism HONG KONG
4531
PART
FILE NUMBER
SEA FED
79/400/04
CLOSED UNTIL
RELEASE 2032
Co 1030/188
t
兽--叫日
Wt.45474/5971 76,000 (28 sorts) 5/52 N.M.Ltd. 51-8831
c.o
C.O.R.7.
i
;│
PRECEDENTS NOTED UNDER :-
RELATED FILES :—
Communism in the Colonie
158 105/01 - Survey of Communion
1957-59
CROSS REFERENCED UNDER :—
Publicity & Popoganda
}
༥
**
In accordance with Sir John Martin's minute of 28th April, copied at the end of the extracts at (1) opposite, a draft letter to the Governor of Hong Kong is submitted.
The passage at X of (1) has not been included in the draft, because I assume that the Governor will be able to devise his own methods for making the appreciations needed without suggestions being put to him by this Office.
? Copy of letter, as issued, to Mr. Allen (fo)
кавит
2nd May, 1956.
We have ahead, Vaher actin an
parn 5 (c) of craft. Ed.ju
altach
files e. Bones, Sarawak (?) Namchers.
ми. Даная
how
315
PAC 313/13/01
4 wsach FED 159/6/01 which N. Bones
}
rexpertively raised nae
Mauintius
question
recently of controlling the importation....
subversive literature ofrom Hong
ม
Когда
Aushonly
was quen
N.B.
159/4/01 for bark N. B. &
Mamities to spare
"blanker'
bans on the productions of
publishing reganiation
lwo
H. Kong.
Action has been taken in the case
of N. Barnes (No. 2 m
159/6/01) but
astion on the Maunting file appears to
have
1
&
ми. Ох
(Pl. nee
1. Achton
have been awacking the return
Art N. Borneo file.
sae
There has been no resent refarate
coures, with Swak on the subject' but
a
сору я
ние
next to saem on reul
nee also further No.
سند
in is 2/6/01)
Jou muched
to see
лино
file. Wo. you
pl. pass on to Un Watson
10/5
1
N. Bomeo coures.
was.
in FED 159/4/01)
29/3 (No. 3 mm FED
в. новините
9/5
I have intercepted the file to add to Mr. Carstanis, who has
The ladder the name of
asked to see in connection with an
by
The Minister of State.
I have suggested
some amendment of the
draft : I have added at the end eference to the acton Bahn in
yend
نما
N. Bornes Namities as udicated
a
сидину
кавами
%%
in
on Wentante's munte of 915 above. I have detached the files mentioned, as action on thate has already
been badly delged,
سنا
1975
fory live her tü
my
༼༡༽
2
12565
Sir A. Grantham, H King
པི་རི...
25. 5.56
甫
Mr. Johnston
awway
In a minute of 29th May 1956 on ISD 105/01 behind the Secretary of State has said that he would like to have, on Lord Lloyd's return, a departmental talk on Mr. MacDonald's minute about Hong Kong, which appears on page 2 of (1) opposite. Other Ministers may also be concerned (minutes of 2nd May on ISD 105/01). Lord Lloyd will be back on 4th June.
2.
In consequence of Mr. Macdonald's minute under reference the letter at (2) opposite has been sent to Hong Kong. You may wish to consider bringing that letter to the notice of the Secretary of State, in case he would like the meeting postponed until we have a reply to it.
3. If not, the file should also be seen by Sir John Martin, Mr. Carstairs, Mr. Watson, and Mr. Macdonald (if in the Office at present), so that the Private Secretary may know whether they could be expected to attend the meeting.
40
In any case Mr. Carstairs should see the letter at (2) with reference to my minute of 10th May above and his minute of 9th May on ISD 105/01.
Mi
Carstan's Aft
1.
4/10
Pse
see above minute
ковики
1st June, 1956.
Subject to anything
You have to add, Hease send t
2. Mr Moreton
Pse see paras le 2 of 12 Rishton's minute... Can we
now await a refly to (2)?
| MM. 4/6
Surf. Martin
wait
a
the soft
wich a
I then to this might reasonably
two-mate while
so pre-ocapied with Cyplus etc.
that if nothing is in from Hong Kong within a reasonable time, perhaps I
could show him (2)
риворо
• let him know what
1
1
і
i
happening.
Sr Sale
$16
Bu. 18 June
بيه
דירין
в
Sir J. Martini
می کند
minute
Wait ansthis fort acht fortnight
917171876.
3. Sin A Grantha
above
At.bun 18/0.
alonce
Ref (2). Ene copies of
14/6/556
comes
with
C.C.SE. A Office of 1954.
Mr. Sheffield.
Mr. MarDante R. 26/6.
Mr. Watson.
M. Johnston.
Please see (3) in reply to (2). The correspondence inclosed with useful initiatives on the part of the H.K. boot. and its fate as unfortunate.
(?) strikes me
as
a
? Re Mr. Howard-Drake's min. 5th June, the S. ft. night new be shown (2) and (3) and asked whether he
That a
Rough
agrees
not have we may
discussion may await the Govemars
to (?), even follow-up that for sam time.
кавит
:
2316/16
The Hong Kong postal administration has weten
the
correctly and in accordance with the provisions of
temitones in the region
Portal Convention. The
other
(Malaye, Bomes Surnuak ate) have also accepted
the Convention and
Can
stop transmission of items
posted in their
areas.
The difficulty is of course to detest
Sulewarowe
swe News
handed in
in the ordinary way,
1 Can
އ
Sac
Mr Dalton says at x of his letter, and
no way of wercoming this difficulty shoot of
a
complete censorship, whit
impossible in penes time.
UMLA
عا
Antheppies 26.6
I think that the Hongkong Gels offer ( had not previously seen) was very fair and it is sufritunate
male thit the response from other terceivin was lukewarm. I now now difficult
delicati is Hongtions's ponition. But it seems to me that the submersive effect is of such importance to se mamy territories that we
thaned wit
abandon the quest for a remedy until wise for Satisfied that everything possibly has been done
is theme cry hope finds one. For
For example.
of blong long this thean of pre-
"propaganda at its Hongwung
at it's Hongling source, before
el.
ever mashes the Pist. Office? To this and many
other questions the
may provide
wait until
Muggestia Hongkong jat
an answer. I agnes that we should we have the Govenor follow sep
with
& Jacline
A.
which will, I hope, provide basis for any further discussion.
26 June 86
بهری
with Mr Mac Donald that we went
wait fu
.
apre
heep at this
but we
mut funt
the
prained appreciatio.
gr
appears
is me
"1
that of other ton nces
flaubet
such as
Bone's now go
barry" of the purducts of H.K. publishes
angurues
w
ade the
anthrit
отди
became
15 aus der an u
pun of (2),
v. last
ри utevested
the my
H.K.'s old
in control for
then end.
по повод
I. May of the practical
difficulties might disappear If all the publications
If a partimdan fun
арайте
were Andrad. Po tobe banned.
пля
47/6
Sir J. Martin
2.
I agree with preceding minutes.
The Governor has now left Hong Kong and if you agree (3) might be acknowledged by a letter from me to Mr. David as in the draft opposite.
3. With reference to Mr. Ashton's minute of 23rd June I do not think we need bother the Secretary of State at this moment. This is one of the subjects which might perhaps be covered in any general talk he has with Sir A. Grantham while the latter is here on leave.
Miss Turnell
Jagree /12142916
Touste R pl.
3026
(J.B. Johnston)
28.6.56.
4
E. B. David, Hong Kong
マ
Вельштесе
4)
b06-52
Mr. Johnston.
зависит.
The S. ft. will be seeing
1.J.
16th July.
Grantham on
Re
Sir Alexander
3 of your minste of 20th S.of S. should now be shown
para.
June, ? the
(2) and (3), in case he would like to descess the subject
with the Govenor.
Кавики
1/7150
Mr. Howard-Drake
Your minute of 5/6. You may now like to let the Secretary of State see (2) and (3) on this file before he sees Sir A. Grantham. You will see that material is being collected for a detailed appreciation of the extent to which Hong Kong is being used as a channel for distribution of Communist literature, and until this is completed we cannot take the matter much further at this end.
احمد
B
(J.B. Johnston)
11.7.56.
Sors. had this with him when he
saw für of paultan lokay.
the
404 519.
We do not seem to have reserved
further commmmmation expected from Hong Kong. (v. Nos. 304).
in
""blanket""
am sending this file an ISD file regarding kamms. If, when it return, we вашния
мини
still
still have not heard from 14. K. perhaps F.E. Dept. would sounder
whether they might not be
reminded
I. Whisontie
had worked,
long ago.
10
"/1/5)
Yes. If I had not
fogether the
ви
system
emstones of this file or if
I should have done this
Action is new in hand
FED 159/401/01.
Ml. be with that
Mereen.
File
as
requested
Ketaven 27/2
t
CLOSED
NO CO. THER
LI TAKEN
1957-59
!
1
4
FED. 79/400/04
SECRET
30th June, 1956.
As the Governor has now left Hong Kong I am writing to you. to acknowledge with many thanks his letter to Martin of the 14th June, about the distribution of Chinese Communist publicity material through Hong Kong to other Colonies.
We were most interested to see the correspondence you had had with the Commissioner General's office in 1954. So far as I can ascertain we had not seen this before. It is disappointing that Governments did not feel able to take advantage of your very helpful initiative in this matter.
We look forward to studying the detailed appreciation you are making in due course.
E. B. DAVID, ESQ., C.M. G.
(J.B. Johnston)
1
}
Mr...
Johnston
Mr.
Mr.
Mr.
Sir J. Martin
File No. FED..79/400/04..
Permt. U.S. of S.
Parly. U.S. of S.
Minister of State
29/76
Secretary of State
Your Reference.
Date..
SECRET
DRAFT
E. B. David, Esq., C.M.G.,
Colonial Secretariat,
Hong Kong.
FURTHER ACTION
Norê for tas gender
of talks with Sixt from the em
し
For Mr. Johnston's signature
4
boyou
As the Governor has now left Hong Kong I am writing
to acknowledge with many thanks his letter to Martin of
[to
the 14th June, about the distribution of Chinese
Communist publicity material through Hong Kong to other
Colonies.
We were most interested to see the correspondence
you had had with the Commissioner General's office in 1954.
So far as I can ascertain we had not seen this before.
It is disappointing that Governments did not feel able to
take advantage of your very helpful initiative in this
matter.
We look forward to studying the detailed appreciation
you are making in due course.
(94221) Wt. 42390-6641
5000 pads 10/54 D.L.
!
GOVERNMENT HOUSE
HONG KONG
'
SECRET
SECRET
Dear Martin,
4531
R...
14th June, 1956.
Thank you for your letter No. FED/79/400/04
of the 25th May about the distribution of Chinese Communist publicity material through Hong Kong to other Colonies. We are setting about collecting material for a detailed appreciation on the lines of your paragraph 4.
This may take some little time.
I am not sure whether you have seen copies of correspondence on this subject which we had with the Commissioner General's Office towards the end of 1954. You will see from these two letters that there is one way in which the distribution of this propaganda through Hong Kong could be limited. Since, however, other Colonial territories in the area did not feel able to take advantage of our offer, I am afraid that there has been no progress in the matter in the last eighteen months.
Once we have completed an appreciation of the present situation, I will see what can be done to meet your wishes. As you are aware, however, the matter is fraught with difficulties from our point of view and I am not optimistic that any easy solution will be found.
Yours ever,
C.M.
Sir John Martin, K. C. M. G., C. B., C. V. O.,
Colonial Office,
The Church House,
Great Smith Street, London, S. W. 1.
22 JUN 1956
A co octTION
3
()
3/3571/49
SECRET
who 7
COPY
SECRET
Sect.
Наў кам
5th May, 1954.
Will you please refer to my letter 23/3571/49 of 17th November, 1953, and to Item 3 of the Minutes of the Mallaig Conference about the export of Communist publications from Hong Kong.
In the middle of January the Communist Radio in Peking suddenly delivered a blast against Hong Kong to the effect that, at American behest, we were stopping the transmission to the United States of copies of a Chinese pamphlet on United Nations prisoners of war in Korea. On enquiry it transpired that this was in fact true, action having been taken administratively by the Postmaster-General here, as the result of a request last November made by the Postmaster-General at Washington, under Section 32 (1) of the Hong Kong Post Office Ordinance. This provides, inter alia, that no person shall post, tender for posting or send by post "anything whatsoever of which the circulation is forbidden in the country of destination (provided that such country is included in the Universal Postal Union?". This clause follows Article 59 (1) (a) of the Universal Postal Convention of Brussels, 1952, which similarly states that the forwarding of "articles of which the importation or circulation is prohibited in the country of destination" is prohibited.
The
Although the pamphlet in question was printed in Peking, copies were being tendered for posting here by the China News Agency. The Postmaster- General was, therefore, quite within his rights in telling the Agency that no further copies would be accepted for transmission to the United States. Central People's Government, although not signatories to the Universal Postal Convention, have notified their adherence to and acceptance of its requirements and are no doubt fully aware of the legality of the Postmaster-General's action. In any case, the Agency have not, so far as we know, made any further attempt to post such booklets to the United States.
This puts a different complexion on the matter, since it now appears that, without any new legislation, we have powers to refuse to accept for transmission by post any publications the circulation of which is forbidden in the country of destination, provided that that country is a member of Universal Postal Union. We could also, I understand, stop the transmission through Hong Kong of packets posted elsewhere, e. g. in China, and sent à decouvert, i. e. in "Omnibus" bags for further sorting and onward transmission here. We cannot, however, interfere with correspondence sent through the Colony in closed bags.
We cannot prohibit the posting of "Communist literature" in general or set ourselves up as judges of what may or may not be considered subversive in other territories, but, if those territories, being members of the Postal Union, were to provide us with particulars of specific publications prohibited in those territories, with details of their publishers or distributors, we could consider the prohibition of the export of those publications by post from Hong Kong. I must, however, make it clear that the operative word at this stage must be 'consider', since the Hong Kong Government feel bound to make certain reservations. These are that, if we did prohibit export, we could not, of course, guarantee to stop completely the export of a given publication. If we know the distributor, we can prohibit him from tendering packages in bulk, but we cannot obviously catch individual packages that may be tendered across the counters. Furthermore, Hong Kong's position vis-a-vis Communist China is a special one which calls for a line of action differing from time to time from that adopted by British territories in S. E. Asia. Even if we have the legal authority and right to stop mail, the exercise of this power on an extensive scale may well have serious repercussions on Hong Kong. We are an obvious target for retaliatory measures and we would have to be persuaded by the strongest case possible before we decided to impose any extensive ban on the export of "subversive" publications to other territories. Moreover, we have no doubt that the C. P. G. would be quick to realise what was happening and would probably divert the flow of the questionable literature to other channels, for example, direct from China in closed transit bags. However, in order to consider in detail the extent of the operation to which we might be committed we should, in the first
x
i
- 2 -
place, have from each territory concerned a list of specific publications with particulars of the publishers or distributors, and, if the territories in S. E. Asia wish to proceed with this proposal, they will doubtless let us have this information in due course. We will then give the matter further consideration but must take into account the caveats to which I have referred.
Copied to:
ML. B. Hanley, Esq.,
Security Liaison Officer, Hong Kong.
1
(P. G. F. Dalton)
SECRET
Ref: 22511/12/54G.
My Dear Dalton,
COPY
Office of the Commissioner-General for
the United Kingdom in S. E. Asia,
Phoenix Park,
Singapore.
29th September, 1954.
LEVES
I am sorry to have taken so long to reply to your letter 23/3571/49 of May 5, but I have been waiting to see whether the British territories in the area felt able to take advantage of the measures you suggested, before commenting.
بتر
I have now had replies from the Governments of Sarawak, North Borneo, Singapore and the Federation, all of them expressing appreciation of the offer you made, but unanimous in their opinion that the suggested measures would be difficult to impose and of doubtful efficacy. Each of these Governments does, of course, exercise some control over the flow of communist publications entering their respective territories, but none of them considers that an additional check in Hong Kong is likely to reduce very much the quantity of subversive material that gets through. Moreover, they think it would be a stupendous task to keep lists of proscribed publications constantly up to date. These territories are mainly concerned, it seems, about the quantity of propaganda that gets through in small individual packages, but, as you
In the circumstances, point out, there is nothing you can do about this. therefore, I do not ask you to pursue the matter in so far as the British territories are concerned. I am sorry to send so negative a reply to your generous offer after all the complaints we have heard from the territories hereabouts, but in fact I think that this is the practical answer.
A report on this subject is being sent to the Foreign Office. In it we are suggesting that Missions in the area should be asked whether they see any way to take advantage of your suggestions; we are of course drawing attention to the difficulties of introducing any such scheme described in the last paragraph of your letter, and to the fact that the consent and co-operation of the Government of Hong Kong would be requisite.
I am sending copies of this letter to Watherston in Kuala Lumpur, Higham in Singapore, Ellis in Sarawak and Gray in Jesselton.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.