contribution from a person who might be said to be writing in his own
field is the article about Hong Kong by Stanley Karnow, The timing and
reason for this series of articles is therefore a little difficult to
fathom; the timing may be purely fortuitous and the sories may have been
put together by Larry 3tern es & good gimmick during the "oilly ocason".
a
3. While the general tone of the articles is not basically unfriendly,
and in general it is not unwelcome to see so much attention paid to what
Britain is doing in the world as a whole, there are one or two
unpleasant points.
HongKong
Cofy for. Hong Kong & West Indian Dyst Shurch Struce.
(J. S. Whitehead)
Robert F. Ford, Leq.
Joint Information Policy & Guidance Department
Foreign Office/Commonwealth Office
AECEIVED IN ICHIVES NO.63
JUL1967
LONDON, S.N.1
1
נן
CONFIDENTIAL
рабо
!
SECTION B
The Washington Post
Outlook
SUNDAY, JULY 16, 1967
COLUMNISTS
EDITORIALS
k
B1
Sun Setting Luridly on Bits of Empire
No Laugh to Anguilla, Politically Adrift
By Laurence Stern
Workington Post Hour Writer
ANGUILLA, West Indies - It is all
too tempting to cast it as a comic opera, a Ruritanian happening. this
spectacle of little Anguilla becoming Britain's first ex-calony to seek
re- union with the Crown.
The case and the plot are rich enough for a
dozen Peter Sellers comedies.
But there are overtures of serious trouble In the circumstances that
caused 6000 normally gentle Angull- Jins on this patch of coral and vol.
M
3 Laurence Stern-The Washinaten Pat
Peter Adams, sometimes called the "President of Anguilla," holds a press
conference after the islanders voted overichèlm- ingly for accession
from the State of St. Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla.
canle debris to eat themselves Joose
from the central government some T0 miles away.
"Legally, we are wholly independent and adrift," declared one Island
lead. er after the secession vote. in a state. ment that was both a
celebration and
■ lament.
Aside from its 15 men ruling council, the
Island has little in the way of for mal civil govenment Since the
forcible
Anguil
Anguilla
Self-styled independent republic 175
miles southeast of Puerto Rico, formerly a part of St.
Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla self-gov erning state in British Common- wealth.
15-member Ruling
Government
Committee.
Area-35 square miles.
1'opulation-8000.
National resources-One salt pond. Principal export-Salt.
breakaway from the central govern ment of Premier Robert Bradshaw, The
Anguillans have flown the Union Jacks, the flag of San Francisco, which
was donated by an admiring newspaper ediler from that elty, and now no
flag at all. The island It, In a sense, a stateless state.
Anguilla is pressing its case for al filiation with the rest of the
world both in London and at the United Nations. Ils leaders have
appealed to the United States and Canada to adopt it as foster parents
but both teferred to Britain's seniority as co- Jonial proprietor of
Anguilla for the past 300 years,
And Britain takes the view that the Chunder on the islands is purely in
internal matter for the newly emanci pated state to solve.
Att this has led in a serio comic es calation of both offensive and
defen sive actions on both sides. Anguillans, fearful of invasion by
Bradshaw's fil- liputian navy and air force, are ready at a moment's
notice to block the island'a airstrip with melal drums and automo- biles
Rifles and revolvers are legion on the jaland
An Overseas Expedition
ND IN THE capital city of Basseter re on St. Kitts, there are persistent
reports of arms shipments flown in to Anguilla by night from Antigua.
The prison at Basseterre holds 22 political prisoners Implicated by
Bradshaw's police in a zany, pre dawn shoot-em- up on June 10 during
which no one was hurt and not an inch of territory was exchanged.
The government is convinced that The Ineffectual attack was launched
from Anguilla's shore. Among those ar rested were the leader of the
opposi tion Political Action Movement (PAM), William Herbert, and two
while Kit Lians from prominent island families.
Since the Incident, Bradshaw has im- posed near martial law on his
island and has sworn in 162 "special con stables" citizens whose duty it
is to help check subversion against the gov ernment. Some apprehensive
residents of Basseterre liken the special run- stables to the ten ton
maconte or. canized by Haltian dictator Francol Duvaller.
"Man, there is intrigue all around this city," said one well-known Ki
Utian. "People are terrified to talk. Bradshaw's got spies all over the
place,
[FLORIDAN
Atlantic
Crocus Mill
Scrub Isl
ANGUILLA
"
R
Miles
Devan
DOM. PUERTO HAITI REP RICO
ANGUILLA
300
XICA
Carisbron Sen
Wiles
The British Empire has long since passed into history. The larg er
elements broke away to form the Commonwealth, and one by one Whitehall
has been gently nudging the smaller fellows out of the nest into
independence. Some of the fledglings, however. are tearing up the roost
prematurely: Aden in the Middle East and Anguilla in the West Indies,
for instance. And alien forces are causing trouble for Gibraltar and
Hong Kong, two crown col· onies that Britain is in no hurry to
relinquish. The situation in these far-flung hotbeds is explored on this
page and Page C3.
坚决支持 工人的大 黑工!
An export version of Man Tse-tung's Red Guards at work in Hong Kong.
like that woman in the green dress who is coming toward us now."
Another implored: "Please, in the name of God, don't use any names it
you write about this They have thugs who will cut your throat gladly for
25 cents"
There is a strong undercurrent of admiration for the Anguillan secession
In Rasselerre "Now that they broke away. whispered a "St. Kitts white"
woman, "Anguilla is our nearest free republic"
Bradshaw refuses to see reporters these days on grounds that the British
and American press have projected a harsh and unfair image of him to the
outside world. "He went out of his way to talk to reporters, but he
feels it is pointless," explains the bearded young Minister of
Education, Fitzroy Bryant
Fear in the Streets
RADSHAW'S OBSESSIVE concern
Bwith security and his turn toward
more and more "emergency" measures have given rise to fears that the
Island 5 heading toward a Haitian style re gime.
Rigid restrictions have been imposed on public meetings in St Kitts.
Con- versations on the streets are awkward. low pitched and accompanied
by fre quent backward glances
Last weekend, without general notice, airport police began Impounding
movie cameras and tape recorders carried by
Incoming visitors.
Word is around that the central gov
*rnment is trying to import helicopters From private American supplier
Heli ropter landings would be the only way 1 circumvent the simple but
effective Blockade of Angullia's strip
But any attempt at military seizure could plunge the island chain into a
blood bath Anguitian spirits are high, expecially after the intoxication
of newly proclaimed independence.
Bradshaw is not the only specter haunting the Anguillant Private com
mercial interests are beginning to circle the island, whose exquisite
beaches- among the most dazzling in the Carib bran-make it prime piece
of off shore real estate
Miami and Bahamian based gambling Interests, looking for new elbow room
in the Caribbean, are eyeing the drift- ing state with growing interest.
Anguil- la's leaders had a picturesque visit Jast week from an American
who said he could bring the island a water system and factories In
exchange, he said that his sponsors, described as a "1000-year- old
European religious sect," wanted two square miles of Anguilla turned
over to them in perpetuity.
"The commillee thought he wanted to start some sort of free love colony
and turned him down," said an Island source. The Anguillans were also
some- what taken aback by the American's dress He wore kilts.
Help From Harvard TO HELP GUIDE them through the
legal perils of new statehood, never-
al well-to-do Anguillang hired Harvard
Enla
constitutional law Prof. Roger Fisher, who flew down from his vacation
home In Martha's Vineyard to observe lavt Tuesday's election
During the voting and the ceremonies later, the blond, rangy Fisher
fitted about continuously, drafting and typing statements un his
portable, giving ad- vice and carrying on rounds of con. Aultation with
and leaders. Fisher had brought the Anguillan draft can stitution to the
land from Martha's Vineyard in his attache ease.
"As an international lawyer." Fisher explained. "I was interested in the
problem of the ministate, say the typi cal former colony, that is too
small to maintain its own civil service. And Then, suddenly, along came
Anguilla "
Hong Kong
Hong Kong-Brush crown colony off the southeastern coast of Kwangtung
Province, China. Government-Governor acting with advice of 12-member
Executive Council. advice and consent of 17-member Legislative Council.
Area-308 square miles. Population-3,133,000,
Natural resources-Deep-waler
harbor.
Princma! exports
-
Ships, textiles and plastic, melal, electrical and Textile products.
Hong Kong Deflated
By Stanley Karnoir
Ww.ninkin Post Forum Berelem
TONG KONG--Though perched on
I the ear of red ca as precari
Dunly as a village on the slope of ■ vol. cano, Hong Kong Is one of the
world's exolle boom Towns.
Modern skyscrapers, soaring against a landscape of verdant hills, frame
a barbor burtling with freighters, junke and sampan Air conditioned
factories compete with putrid sweatshops and Imposing banks rival street
corner money-changers Mandarins and mer- chants, sailors, kingsong
airis, coolien, confidence men and lady tourists from Dubuque all mingle
in a thriving Jum ble of East and West that seems to be in perpetual,
profitable motion
This vitality, sustained over the past dector, has slemmed from three
main stimuti orderly British calonial admin. istration, Lireless Chinese
enterprise and the lolerance of Peking, which earns nearly hat! its
foreign exchange playing expitalist here. Since the mid- dle of May,
however, much of long Kong's strength and self-confidence has been
sapped by a roll of Commu- nist-inspired disorders and violence.
Basically Nihilistic
EFYING NIGHTLY curfews, mobs
DEFYING av Tom Card through
the city's streets, burning buses, smash- ing shops, stoning police and
creating other have. Peking has encouraged The mayhem, mostly with
rhetorle and, for a brief moment last weekend, by a burst of machinegun
fire over the bor- der that killed five Hong Kong palice-
mch
But while Communist in name and inspiration, this turbulence is really
nailistic in its apparent lack of clear. cut, defmable purpose. For at
no time have the Communists, either here or In Peking, specifically
threatened to oust the British from Hong Kong and reinstate the colony
as part of ad. Jacent Kwanglung Province as before its annexation by
Bellain in the last ceptury
Testead, the unrest here appears to be essentially a spillover from the
China of Mao Tse-tung's reckless Cul- 1urel Revolution. The youngsters
swirl- ing senselessly around Hong Kong are. in effect. local
counterparts of the Red Guards, motivated by Mao' fuzzy exhortation that
"rebellion is just- fied"
I justifiable rebellion Inside China See HONG KONG, Page B3, Col. 1
CHINA
New Territories
Kowloon
Lou
Bay
HONG
KONG China
Sea
A
THE WASHINGTON POST
Sunday, July 16, 1967 B
.
Irony in Aden Fighting Is the Measly Prize
John de St Jorre
Landan Observer
DEN-Except for sporadic terror.
iam, Aden in quiet.
British troops have put down the rebellion
in the crown colony's Arab ghetto. Senior Arab officers have quelled the
mutiny by police cadeta and troops of the federal army.
טוןת
But the revolt of June 20, in which a
dozen British soldiers were sacred, cast a long shadow. It falls acrom
January, 1888, when Britain will grant independence to Aden and the
semlautonomous shelkhdoms that are linked with it in the shaky South
Arablan Federation.
The hope for peace and a stable gov- ernment la faint Indeed, and what
little there is rests on the federal army, a force of untested and
questionable ability to control the militant though divided nationalists
who seek the de struction of the federal government.
Little to Fight Över
THE
THE REAL IRONY is that there is lit-
the worth fighting over. The Federa tion of South Arabia-Aden colony and
16 autonomous "up-country" sultanaten -lạ no El Dorado. It has no oil or
se rious prospect of it, little farming or in- dustrial wealth, little
important eco- nomle value at all apart from Aden It- Telf.
And in a shrinking jet world, even the
port of Aden, well situated, cheap and efficient, is a diminishing
financial and strategie asset.
British influence, now overwhelming. Is largely ephemeral. Once the
milltary base has gone, only the businessmen and civil servants on
contract-a few hundred at the most-will remain.
The military presence awamps the civil. With a
radio network (there are two separate full-time stations), clubs,
beaches, cinemas, shops and a PR unit, the services have created a
self-suffi clent world of their own.
The old-time colonials keep their end up at the Union Club-past its
best, but Indisputably British.
Spawner of Grenades
A
LOCAL BOURGEOISIE seeking compromise and stability has yet to emerge.
The seeds, in the shape of Aden's commercial and professional classes
and the growing federal civil service and army, have taken root but are
yet tiny cases in a vast desert of have-nots.
is
In the meantime, overcrowded and
Red
YEMEN
SAUDI ARABIA
ADEN
FR. SOMALILAND
Gulf of Aden
Hilea
SOMALI
Aden
ØST
Aden-British crown colony Inmouth. western Arabla on the Gulf of Aden:
member of the Federa tion of South Arabia. Government High Commissioner
assisted by Council of Ministers and Legislative Council. Area-75 square
miles. Population--250,000.
depressed Aden continues to breed gre nade throwers and, in the hills,
the car- rying of arms remains a preordained, virtually inescapable way
of life. Up- country, and even in the colony itself, guns are the
convertible currency, A British Creation'
THE BRITISH CREATED. rather
Tthan colonized, Aden. A minor and
almost derelict port in 1839 when it was annexed to the Crown, Aden has
blos somed into busy shipping and trading center with a mixed population
of over
• quarter of million-including al- most 100,000 Yemenis-squeezed Into 75
square miles.
Although growly underprivileged In comparison with other British
colonies, Aden has passed through fairly typi- cal colonial experience,
with all that that implies in the way of growing pol
tic) suphistication and rising expecta. dioni.
But the rest of the Federation, with roughly double the population of
Aden, into which the colony was frogmarched by the British In 1963,
knows little of this.
the Association with
British through treaties which left external af fairs and defense in the
hands of the Imperial power-where they still re- main-was quite a
different upbringing from direct rule.
The theory was that eventually a working relationship would emerge. The
theory is still valid, but time has almost run out. At an unspecified
date
In 1968, the British military base will go and South Arabia will become
Inde pendent.
Out of the morass of mistrust, vio lence and complexity which characters
Ize South Arabian politics, two salient points stand clear. The first 16
strangely
irople.
Few people now, despite the deep di- visions, talk of breaking up the
Federa- tion South Arabig may even prove to be Britain's only successful
experiment in federal architecture. The others, like Central Africa and
Malaysia, have col- lapsed, but while the stresses inside South Arabla
have become worse and worse, neither the nationalists nor the sultant
want to bring the house down. What is at issue is who should be mas.
ter.
Narrowing Gulf
THE SECOND undisputed fact is that
the gulf between Aden and the hinterland Ja narrowing. Traditional rul
ers are becorning national polluclans and bureaucrats: Land Rovers and
giant Berliet lorries are ousting the camel; the DC-3 is not so much an
air plane as a way of life, and transistors now hang navel-level amid
the jumble of bandollers, daggers, pistole and broad leather belts.
There is also a growing awareness of each other. The nailonalista are
begin ning to realize that fighting British imperialism, whether in
Crater or the Radfan, is no longer enough. Nor can the unsophisticated
tribal and suttanic loyalties, still strong in many places, be totally
ignored.
Arab pporters of the Front for Liberation build fences against British
tanks in Aden,
plausible, even convincing, when put across by a man like Sheikh Muham
mad Farid al-Aulaqul, the Minister of External Affairs.
"We in the federal government gen- uinely believe that we represent a
large section of the South Arabian people and are not afraid to put it
to a dem- ocratic test of 'one man, one vote,'" he
says.
But the gap still appears unbridge able. The main contenders, in the sim
plest terms, are the "Feds" versus the "Nats" The federal government,
which I already self-governing, consista mainly of the old rulers
sultans, sheikhs, emirs and shariffs-who divide The People Like It'
their time between their own states and the new federal government seat
at Al-Ittihad ("the Federation"), 20 miles from Aden.
In this government there is a leaven- ing of Adenis -four ministers, all
moderate, middle-class and politically damned since they were appointed
by the British and have no significant fol. lowing.
It is difficult to justify the existence of the federal government (and
the manner in which it was created) in modern, democratie terms, but
there is no getting away from the fact that it does exist and that Its
case can sound
Reds Stall Hong Kong Boom
HONG KONG, from Pare Bl
■imed at alleged Ambiguously "counter-revolutionarles" difficult to
identify, however, the target In Hong Kong is more visible. It is the
British- the infamous "British imperialists."
Ghost of Singapore
THE
THE ATTACK on the British is an offensive against a ghost. Britain's
authority in the Orlent collapsed with the fall of Singapore to the
Japanese in 1941 and its residual presence in this tiny colony is only a
kind of accidental afterthought.
The Chinese Communist leaders are well aware of London's Intentions to
once withdraw gradually from its mighty bastions east of Suet, ending
the era of Rule Britannia, For Peking. though, assaulting the British in
their final hours in the Far East is a gym- bolte action that
conveniently has a nationalistic appral to all Chinese.
It was the British, burst out of their
Jaland in the 19th century, who were the first foreigners to defeat the
Celes- tial Universe that China considered it- self. That penetration
Into the Sacred Middle Kingdom, begun by the British In the Opium War of
1840, opened the way for the French, German, Rus sians and other Outer
Barbarians, lesy. ing humiliating cars on Chinese na. Vonal pride.
Perhaps the roots of
Mao's intense chauvinism Be In the fact that his formative youth was a
period in which China, dominated by assorted foreign spheres of
Influence, was what he now calls a "semicolonial" country.
A Laugh for Moscow
KONG is an irritating re-
Hminder of that period. In its way,
100, It also represents an ideological challenge to Mao. For here, on
terr tory rightfully belonging to his China, stands an enclave of
mid-Victorian capitalism that works,
Indeed, Hong Kong has worked so well that even Peking uses it to earn
some $600 million annually from ex- ports of food, textiles, banking
opera tions and other business. The incon- gruity of the world's
foremost "Marx- ist-Leninists" relying for hard currency on the heirs of
Adam Smith never falls to tickle the Soviet leaders, constantly berated
as they are by Mao for their "modern revisionism."
Within recent times. Hong Kong's principal asset has been its ability to
inspire trust in a region of instability. That sense of trust received a
big boost after World War II when the colonial government and the Hong
Kong and Shanghai Bank combined to redeem at face value some $15 million
worth of phony currency issued by the Japa
nese during their occupation of Jion: Kong.
La
News of the colony's financial solid- Ity spread through Asia. Its
largest Initial Impact was in China, then suf fering from wild Inflation
as Chiang Kal-shek's Nationalist government crumbled. Many Shanghai
Industrial ists, among others, shifted their capital to Hong Kong,
bought cholce sites and built factorles.
UP-COUNTRY, HOWEVER, a dichot
omy between the federal 'line' and more traditional views is revealed
Mohsin, deputy ruler of the Emirate of Dhala, put it succinctly: "After
Inde- pendence, the present system of govern- ment (Le feudal rule) will
continue here; the people are used to it and like it."
Nervously tapping his new dictating machine, with a carbine at his side
and * pistol and dagger in his belt, Mohsin was clearly unprepared to
submit bim- self to any kind of democratic process. And judging by the
number of bullet and
bazooka holes in his brother Sha'afal's palace in Dhala-the nearest the
equivalent South Arabla has to Harris Poll, holes indicating unpopu
Jarity he is a sensible man.
Others, like the deputy ruler of Au- dhali State, Nalb Ja'bil, whose
bother, Sultan Saleh, is the ruler and also Ped eral Minister of
Internal Security, are much more certain of their ground. A
Polyglot Rock Hugs Blighty
A
By Roy Perrott
London Observer
Low taxes, cheap labor, free money flow and relatively honest governmen
soon stimulated the prosperous, perse cuted overseas Chinese of
Southeast Asia to move their capital to Hong Kong. In the process, the
colony changed from an entrepot of British trading firms to an
aggressive center of
BOUT A QUARTER of a million light industry, Hong Kong-made ex
years ago, • massive hump of ports, valued at nearly a billion dollar
limestone some two miles long erupted last year, have Increased
sevenfold
off the sea bed on the southern tip of Spain. This moment in geological
times is when the frontier trouble be tween Gibraltar and Franco really
began.
since 1954
Workers Exploited
Β'
UT "FREEDOM without democra cy." as a former governor once dr serbed
Hong Kong's basic principle has its drawbacks. While giving bun nessmen
freedom to make money, it has also left them free to exploit work ers.
And particularly in aleary, mar ginal industries, management's treat
ment of labor is often archaic.
In plastic flower factories, for exan ple, workers are on a piecework
wal
The Spaniards were bound to feel from the first that the Rock meant to
be part of the mainland. Equally, no foreign maritime nation could fail
to regard this towering senti- net over the Straits, almost an island In
silhouette, as other than fair game for capture.
A conficilan volev
fine looking man, very tough, a natural leader with a well developed
political sense, he claims-and in South Arabian terms there is more than
a little truth in it that he is a demoernt.
The nationalists the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen
Aeroca da t
.1
federal government is digging its heels In The sullans Increasingly see
their survival at a central government d- rectly linked with their
continued ALA- tus as rulers back in the hills.
Elections Are Risky
INFORTUNATELY, although in theory the two sides agree to na Lional
chestions under U N. supervision on the basis of universal suffrage, it
is unlikely that their good faith will ever be put to the test
[FLOSY) and the National Liberation U
Front [NLF)) are united in their opposi tion to the British and the
federal gov ernment-an it now stands and the continuation of sheikhdom
rule up-coun But personalities, tactics and FLOSY's close links with the
Egyptians divide them).
try.
the
While their difference
fairly clear,
of are
strength their respective followings In hot. FLOSY with its trade union
backing (Abdulla al Asnag, the movement's most Impressive leader, first
made his mark as a trade union official) is still proba bly the majority
party in Aden, even though six of the 12 unions in the colony have
broken away and now sup port the NI.F.
But in the interior and in the federal army, the NFL appears to hold the
whip hand. The NLF has always been uncompromisingly hostile to the sul
tans, although tronically 11 is at one with the federal government In
Its op- position to Egyptian interference.
Thus while the nationalists are liter- ally at one another's throats
(political assassinations are commonplace), the
Atlantic Ocean
SPAIN
Med.
GIBRALTAR
Strait of Gibraltar
MOROCCO
0
23
Melen
pete for business with their Mediter ranean equivalents
In 1964, before Gen. Franco began putting restrictions on traffic at the
frontier in pursuit of his campaign to recover soVETELERİY over the
Rock, British residents from the Corla Del Sol (the adjacent part of the
Spanish roast) used to drive into Gibraltar once a month or more often,
pick up their pension or allowance at Barclay's and then load the car
with a huge cargo of English groceries.
+
The ancient märki of shot and shell on the Rock show how much hurt
Spanish pride is vested in Gibraltar. When in 1964 the Spaniards
intensified Ahern Tranter and customer cheeksak
Shortage of time before independ ence is one hindrance, and the
national- Ists' insistence on the prior dissolution of the federal
government is another. A third would be the undoubted reluc- tance of
some of the sultans to submit themselves to such an undignifled and
potentially disastrous exercise.
Probably the only unifying element in the whole fragmented business is
the federal army. Drawn from all tribes, well trained and led by
officers who, virtually without exception, have come up the hard way
through the ranks, i as a force to be reckoned with, on both fighting
and political fronts.
When the British have finally gone, this professional, wholly South
Arabian army may fulfill its destiny. As one polrtically minded officer
put it to me. "Aden the head of the Federa tion: the rest is the body We
must stay together whatever happens, either by free will or, if
necessary, by force
Gibraltar
Gibraltar British crown colony at
the southern tip of Spain. Government-Governor assisted by Executive
Council and Legislative Council.
Area-24 square miles. Population
rison).
-28.460 (including gar-
material from Spain. Let them realize the artificiality of their economy
on the Rock, its dependence on Spain
It is hard to say which side the re- strictions hurt most, since
Gibraltar and the adjacent area of Spain had be
come
strongly Interdependent. The Rocks Spanish workers took home about three
times the normal wage for the same sort of work in Spain. The
Gibraltarians normally spent around $17 million a year in La Linea, just
across the frontier, and other nearby towns
In 1965, the United Nations Trustee- ship Committee Invited Britain and
The
* separate full time stations), clubs, -ww network (there are beaches,
cinemas, shops and a PR unit, the services have created a self-suffi
cient world of their own.
The old-time colonials keep their end up at the Union Club-past its
best, but indisputably British.
Spawner of Grenades A
LOCAL BOURGEOISIE seeking compromise and stability has yet to emerge.
The seeds, in the shape of Aden's commercial and professional classes
and the growing federal civil service and army, have taken root but are
as yet tiny oases in a vast desert of have-nots.
is
In the meantime, overcrowded and
cal colonist experience, with all that - grossly underprivileged in
comparison with other British colonies, Aden has passed through a fairly
typl that implies in the way of growing pol itical sophistication and
rising expecta tions
But the rest of the Federation, with roughly double the population of
Aden, into which the colony was frogmarched by the British in 1963,
knows little of this. Association through treaties which left external
af- with the British fairs and defense in the hands of the imperial
power-where they still re- main-was quite a different upbringing from
direct rule.
The theory was that eventually a working relationship would emerge. The
theory is still valid, but time has almost run out. At an unspecified
date
ДИР
able. The main contenders, In the m all appears unbridge plest terms,
are the "Feds" versus the "Sats." The federal government, which is
already self-governing, consists mainly of the old rulers-sultans,
sheikhs, emirs and shariffs-who divide their time between their own
states and the new federal government seat at Al-Ittihad ("the
Federation"), 20 miles from Aden.
In this government there is a leaven-
uinely Dry
section of the South Arabian people and are not afraid to put it to a
dem ocraile test of 'one man, one vole," he says.
The People Like It'
UP-COUNTRY, HOWEVER, & dichot
omy between the federal 'line" and more traditional views in revealed.
Mohsin, deputy ruler of the Emirate of Dhala, put it succinctly: "After
Inde-
ing of Adenis four ministers, all pendence, the present system of
govern-
moderate, middle-class and politically damned since they were appointed
by the British and have no significant fol lowing.
It is difficult to justify the existence of the federal government (and
the manner in which it was created) in modern, democratie terms, but
there to no getting away from the fact that it does exist and that its
case can sound
Reds Stall Hong Kong Boom
HONG KONG, from Page Bl zmbiguously almed at
alleged "counter-revolutionaries" difficult to identify, however, the
larget In Hong Kong is more visible. It is the British- the infamous
"British imperialists."
Ghost of Singapore
THE ATTACK on the British is an
Toffensive against a ghost. Britain's
authority in the Orient collapsed with the fall
of Singapore to the Japanese in 1941 and its residual presence in this
tiny colony is only a kind of accidental afterthought.
The Chinese Communist leaders are well aware of London's intentions to
withdraw gradually from its once mighty bastions east of Suez, ending
the era of Rule Britannia. For Peking. though, assaulting the British In
their final hours in the Far East is a sym- bolic action that
conveniently has a nationalistic appeal to all Chinese.
It was the British, burst out of their island in the 19th century, who
were the first foreigners to defeat the Celes- tial Universe that China
considered II- self. That penetration Into the Sacred Middle Kingdom,
begun by the British In the Opium War of 1840, opened the way for the
French, Germans, Rus- sians and other Outer Barbarians, leav- ing
humiliating scars on Chinese na- Perhaps the roots of tional pride.
HONG
KONG
Mao's intense chauvinism lle in the fact that his formative youth was a
period in which China, dominated by assorted foreign spheres of
influence, was what he now calls a "semicolonial" country,
A Laugh for Moscow HONG KONG is an irritating re-
minder of that period. In its way, too, it also represents an
ideological challenge to Mao. For here, on terri tory rightfully
belonging to his China, stands an enclave of mid-Victorian capitalism
that works.
Indeed, Hong Kong has worked so well that even Peking uses it to earn
some $600 million annually from ex- ports of food, textiles, banking
opera tions and other business. The incon- gruity of the world's
foremost "Marx ist-Leninists" relying for hard currency on the heirs of
Adam Smith never falls to tickle the Soviet leaders, constantly berated
as they are by Mao for their "modern revisionism."
atse during their occupation of Hon Kong.
News of the colony's financial solid Ity spread through Asia. Its
larges! Initial impact was in China, then auf fering from wild Inflation
as Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government crumbled. Many Shanghai
Industrial Ists, among others, shifted their capital to Hong Kong,
bought choice sites and built factories.
Low taxes, cheap labor, free money flow and relatively honest government
soon stimulated the prosperous, perse cuted overseas Chinese of Southeas
Asia to move their capital to Hong Kong. In the
process, the colony changed from an entrepot of British trading firms to
an aggressive center of light industry. Hong Kong made ex ports, valued
at nearly a billion dollars last year, have Increased sevenfold since
1954
Workers Exploited
UT "FREEDOM without democra
ment (Le. feudal rule) will continue here; the people are used to it and
like It."
Nervously tapping his new dictating machine, with a carbine at his side
and a pistol and dagger In his belt, Mobsin was clearly unprepared to
submit him- self to any kind of democratic process. And judging by the
number of bullet and bazooka holes in his brother Sha'afal's palace in
Dhala-the nearest equivalent South Arabla has to the Harria Pell, holes
indicating unpopu- Jarity he is a sensible man.
Others, like the deputy ruler of Au- dhati State, Naib Ja'bil, whose
bother, Sultan Saleh, is the ruler and also Fed eral Minister of
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