CO_968_257_COMMUNIST_ACTIVITIES_IN_HONG_KONG_1952 — Page 133

Page 133 FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES

COPY FOR REGISTRATION

TO HONG KONG (Sir A. Grantham)

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Simplex

Sent 30th January, 1952.

09.30 hrs.

RECEIVED

31 JAN 1002

CONFIDENTIAL

No.117.

COLONIAL OFFICE

Following from Foreign Office to

Washington No.600, of 29th January repeated to Peking and Hong Kong. Begins.

(16)

Your telegram No.305.

Please thank State Department for their offer and suggest that comment should be based on all except the last two sentences of the text quoted in paragraph 2 of Hong Kong telegram No.89 to the Colonial Office. We do not think that any official reply should be made by H.M. Charge D'Affaires at Peking to the "protests" reported in his telegram No.59 since they do not appear to have been officially lodged but merely issued as propaganda. Publicity designed to show that these Chinese allegations are unfounded would however clearly be helpful.

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Grateful if Peking would confirm that no official protest has been lodged. Ends.

(14)

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(c) The acceleration of land reform measures in South China has led to an increasing number of demands from the richer peasants and landlord class to their relatives overseas to send remittances of varying amounts to China to enable them to pay off the financial levies imposed by the C.P.G. The se demands are mostly, no doubt, genuine requests for assistance, and there is no evidence of the existence of a separate C.P.G. organisation directing these appeals overseas, but the C.P.G. is certainly benefiting by the acquisition of appreciable quantities of foreign exchange. Some of these demands have originated in Hong Kong, and it is possible that some racketeers are taking advantage of the situation to their own ends.

The Hong Kong Chinese Chamber of Commerce, having received a number of complaints from hard-hit relatives in Hong Kong, considered sending a commission of inquiry to Kwangtung. This proposal has now been abandoned; some of the members of recent sight-seeing tours to Canton having apparently been shown land reform in operation and discussed the matter with members of the provincial government, the Chamber evidently decided that there were no abuses to be looked into. It is still possible that some of the provincial clansmen's associations in Hong Kong may send small fact-finding parties to China.

The possibility exists that in cases where funds cannot be found overseas Chinese may be forced to offer services in kind, and will find themselves pressed into working either openly or clandestinely to further C.P.G. interests abroad.

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