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continued to be kept in ignorance of the true position, and consequently followed the set programme by assembling at the railway station at Kowloon in time to greet the 3 p.m. train on which they had been led to expect, that the Mission would arrive. In the meantime, a welcome party had set out for the border earlier in the morning. This party did not possess passes for the frontier zone, and were therefore held on its perimeter. Mr. Yk Mok was, however, allowed to proceed to the border and later returned with his welcome party to Kowloon railway station at 3 p.m. There he announced to those assembled that the Mission had been post- poned and the crowds thereafter proceed to disperse.
It now appears that feelings of frustration, generated by conceal- ment of the true facts of the situation, were aggravated during the dispersal by false rumours that the Mission had actually arrived and was being detained by the Police in the border area. It also appears that a group or groups in the procession had come prepared to cause trouble, and thereupon proceeded to do so. This whole regrettable incident would not have occurred had the organisations concerned been given the truth by the Federation of Trade Unions concerning the proposed visit of the Mission; more especially information on Saturday, between 11.30 a.m. and 3 p.m. that, as advised from Canton, the proposed visit had been postponed and that the party would not, in fact, arrive. Ends.
2
All is quiet.
,
Disturbances External Distribution sent.
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*Page 61 of 182
INWARD TELEGRAM
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES
COPY FOR REGISTRATION
FROM HONG KONG
(Sir A. Grantham)
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