[1967 riots paper clippings] 11-20 Aug 1967 (English)

 SCMP, 11 Aug 1967 (Page 1)

Only Two Bomb Explosions

There were only two bomb explosions throughout yesterday, though there were several false alarms.

The first bomb was found outside No 154 Connaught Road West at about 10.30 am. It was later detonated by munitions experts.

Just before midnight a parcel containing two batteries filled with gun-powder and “some electric wire wrapped in newspapers were found outside the Southorn Playground, Wanchai. They were also detonated by experts.

There was also no attack on public vehicles.

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SCMP, 11 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

Man Regains Consciousness

A man who was found with serious injuries following a bomb explosion in Argyle Street, Kowloon, on Tuesday night, regained consciousness in Queen Elizabeth Hospital yesterday. A hospital spokesman night described his condition as fair.

According to the police, a bomb was believed to have been in a travel bag the man was carrying.

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SCMP, 11 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

Police Honour Boy For Brave Act
GAVE BOMB WARNING

A 14-year-old boy who saved a police party from walking into a bomb trap in Shaukiwan last Monday was honoured by the police at a tea party yesterday.

The boy, Wong Hon-ming, disregarded his own safety in rushing to warn the policemen that a bomb lay in their path as they searched a squatter area. The bomb exploded a few seconds later.

Yesterday Hon-ming was the centre of attention at the Bayview Police Station as the policemen he saved from harm applauded his brave act. Hon-ming was accompanied by his parents and Mr Cheung Kam-tim, Chairman of the Shaukiwan Kaifong Association.

The officers of the station presented him with a pen set and Mr J. W. Harris, the station's Superintendent, handed him a cheque for $100 on behalf of the Police Force. Mr Cheung also presented him with $100.

Mr Harris said Hon-ming's action was a fine example of the instances in which public-spirited people had co-operated and helped the police during their current operations.

Mr Norman Hill, police ballistics officer, was also honoured at the tea party. He was presented with a silver-plated “bomb” as a souvenir by Mr Gordon Mailloux, a correspondent of the Guam News, a television-radio station.

“We've always seen Mr Hill doing brave things recently, taking bombs away and making them safe,” Mr Mailloux said. “It’s a nice gesture to present this little present to Mr Hill in appreciation of his service to the community.”

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SCMP, 11 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

Pupils To Switch From Leftist Schools?

Increasing numbers of parents whose children were studying in Communist schools in Hongkong last term are reported to be eager to place their sons and daughters in non-Communist schools.

The Education Department said yesterday it was ready to help parents in this respect.

No difficulties are foreseen as far as primary schools are concerned but entry into secondary schools may be more difficult because of three factors: there is a lack of places in secondary schools; pupils of Communist schools have a lower standard in subjects; and non-Communist schools are not keen about accepting “indoctrinated” pupils.

It is understood there are about 18,000 to 20,000 pupils in leftist schools here. Fees are lower than those of other schools.

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SCMP, 11 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

Suspected Parcel Bombs Being X-Rayed

A sophisticated mini X-ray machine of a type used by New York police for criminal detection has been acquired by the Hongkong police for examining suspected parcel bombs.

The machine, the latest portable types manufactured by Bucky X-Ray International of New York, cost $20,000, and is the only one of its kind in the Colony.

Mr Norman Hill, the police ballistics officer, said yesterday the machine, acquired two day ago, could be set up within minutes. It weighed 45lb and could be carried like a suitcase. “It very compact and is simple to operate,” Mr Hill said.

Whenever there was a report of a suspected bomb or parcel, the machine, along with a portable generator, would be taken to the scene, he said. “The penetration power of the X-ray unit is quite deep and parcels measuring more than a foot can be seen through with ease.”

Mr Hill said only one suspected parcel, one that was delivered by hand, war examined yesterday morning. It turned out to be harmless.

Meanwhile. Mr N. Rolph, the Director of Criminal Investigation, yesterday warned people to be careful when they received parcels they had not expected.

“Whenever you come across objects of such a nature and you are doubtful of its content, let us know and we will check for you with our X-ray machine at the Police Headquarters,” Mr Rolph said.

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SCMP, 11 Aug 1967 (Page 7)

Intimidating Assembly Alleged

Seven men and three youths appeared before Mr A. L. Leathlean at Central Court yesterday on a charge of forming an intimidating assembly.

No pleas were taken and all ten were remanded for seven days in jail custody pending possible transfer to Victoria District Court.

The accused are Wu Ka-on (24) a labourer, of 473 Queen's Road West, ground floor; Hon Sheung-pui (21), a salesman, of 134 Electric Road, third floor; Fung Cheung-sang (28), a plastics worker, of 131A Connaught Road West, second floor; Wan Hung (40), shop foki, of Room 505, Yeung Kwai House, Matauwei Road, fourth floor; Lam Fat (17), office attendant, residing on the root of 142 Portland Street; Leung Ping-kin (21), a worker, of 72 Tak Cheong Street, fourth floor, Mongkok; Huen Pui-kwan (23), an office boy, of 129 Hollywood Road, first floor; Chung Yam-leung (27), proprietor, of 293 Hennessy Road; and two youths under the age of 16 years.

The charge alleges that last Tuesday they had formed an intimidating assembly in Des Voeux Road West.

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SCMP, 11 Aug 1967 (Page 7)

Jailed For Two Years For Unlawful Assembly

Forty people, including six women, were jailed for two years at Central Court yesterday on charges of unlawful assembly.

They were arrested in a police raid on the Taikoo Sugar Refinery Workers’ Union and the Taikoo Metal Workers’ Union in Shaukiwan on July 10.

Mr E. Light, the magistrate, ordered the confiscation of all weapons seized in the raid.

These include sharpened steel rods, metal piping, Molotov cocktails and bottles of acid which Mr Light described as capable of inflicting appalling injuries.

Mr Light said he had no doubt that all the defendants knew the weapons were on the premises.

- No Contrition -

It would be inappropriate for him to single out teenagers for special treatment with regard to their age and sex, he added.

“I do not believe that special treatment would be appreciated either by the teenagers or others bent on undermining by violent means the very structure of law and order” he said.

Mr Light said none of the defendants had shown the slightest contrition.

They had all pleaded not guilty.

After Mr Light passed the sentence, the 40 people screamed protests at him from the dock and demanded their immediate release.

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SCMP, 11 Aug 1967 (Page 7)

Newspaper Executives Accused
FIVE FACE CHARGES OF SEDITION AND INCITEMENT

Five left-wing newspaper executives appeared before Mr E. Light at Central Court yesterday to face a total of 30 charges under the Sedition, Police Force Incitement to Disaffection and Control of Publications (Consolidation) Ordinances.

They are. Wu Tai-chow (32), of 11 Blue Pool Road, ground floor, publisher of the Afternoon News and the Hongkong Evening News. He faces three counts of publication of false news, one of attempting to cause disaffection among members of the Police Force and two counts of sedition.

Chan Yim-kuen (32), publisher of the Tin Fung Yat Pao, and her husband, Poon Wai-wai (46), editor of the newspaper, both of 297 Hennessy Road, seventh floor. Each is charged with three counts of sedition.

- Identical -

The other two both face identical charges. They are Chak Nuen-fai (49), of “J” Block, Merry Terrace, sixth floor, 4 Seymour Road, the owner and licensee of Nam Cheong Printing Co, and Li Siu-hung (44), of 16 Kai Yuen Street, third floor, publisher of the Hongkong Commercial Newspaper.

Both men are charged with three counts of publication of false news, one of attempting to cause disaffection among members of the Police Force and five counts of sedition.

- Remanded -

No pleas were taken and all five were remanded in custody till August 21 on an application by Mr Dermot Rea, the Director of Public Prosecution.

Mr Rea, who was assisted by Mr A. Corrigan, Crown Counsel, told Mr Light that the Attorney-General must consider matters contained in future publications of these newspapers.

Under a section of the Control of Publications (Consolidation) Ordinance, he said, the Attorney-General was empowered to apply for an interim suspension of these newspapers pending conclusion of the proceedings.

But, Mr Rea added, it was the Attorney-General’s sincere hope that the future conduct of the newspapers would not make it necessary for him to make any such application.

One of the charges alleges that on June 2, Wu, Chak and Li aided and abetted the malicious publication of “false news which was liable to alarm public opinion and to disturb public order.”

The “exclusive” news carried by the newspapers allegedly claimed that a joint police-military search operation was carried out at Lowu railway station on the receipt of information that 500 bombs were to be transported from Lowu.

The reports alleged that the police and troops “were frightened to death” and searched trains day and night, “keeping their eyes on anything that looked like parcels, followed, investigated into and searched them, being ridiculously nervous."

Charges relating to their attempts to cause disaffection among members of the Police Force arose from articles carried in the newspapers on June 25.

The articles allegedly called upon members of the Police Force to “disobey orders, let the cat out of the bag” and “refrain from beating up or arresting people.”

Members of the Force were also allegedly advised by the newspapers not to forget their vengeance and to turn their “guns whenever the opportunity arises.”

The articles claimed that this was the only way out for them and the only way that would lead them to “turn over a new leaf” in their lives and guard their wives and children against insults.

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SCMP, 11 Aug 1967 (Page 7)

Remanded In Hospital

Mr T. C. Chan, Magistrate at South Kowloon Court, yesterday went to Queen Elizabeth Hospital and remanded a technician for four days in hospital custody in a charge of riotous assembly.

The technician, Chung Koon-yau (38), was alleged to have committed the offence in Shataukok on June 24.

No plea was taken.

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SCMP, 11 Aug 1967 (Page 7)

TAILOR A VICTIM OF BAD LUCK

Mr T. J. Van Rees, at Central Court yesterday, told a young tailor that he could consider himself the victim of bad luck.

The tailor, Tam Kwok-leung (18), was found not guilty of riotous assembly. He was injured in the leg by pellets from a police Greener gun in Wanchai on July 10.

Mr Van Rees said the prosecution appeared to rely on circumstantial evidence which he found unsatisfactory.

Reviewing evidence relating to the Greener gun incident, Mr Van Rees said it appeared that Tam was some distance away from a rioting crowd when the gun was fired.

“Were he a rioter I do not think he would have called out so loudly for help, knowing police were in the vicinity,” he said.

Mr Van Rees added that mere presence was not sufficient evidence to convict a person on a charge of riot. There must be some degree of participation.

Tam appeared in court yesterday with his leg still in plaster.

Mr Van Rees offered him his sympathy and said he hoped that his leg would be out of plaster in the next few days and that he would not harbour any grudge against the police.

Tam was represented by Mr Peter Chan of Lau, Chan and Ko.

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SCMP, 11 Aug 1967 (Page 7)

Union Official Sent To Prison

A left-wing union official was jailed for one year by Mr T. C. Chan at South Kowloon Court yesterday when he was found guilty of being found on premises containing offensive weapons.

He is Chan Wa (47), assistant officer-in-charge of the Welfare Section, Government, Armed Forces and Hospital Chinese Workers Union, living at Lofungam resettlement estate.

Detective Constable Lee Chuen said that on August 1, the police raided the union's premises at 25-27 Temple Street, Yaumati.

On the roof of 25-27 Temple Street, he saw many inflammatory posters on the walls. Numerous offensive weapons were seized. Chan was later found to be in charge of the premises.

In another case, the cook of the union was jailed for three months after he was found guilty of a similar charge.

Pang Keung (54), of 25 Temple Street, third floor, was found not guilty on another charge of having offensive weapons in his possession.

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SCMP, 11 Aug 1967 (Page 7)

YOUTH ADMITS RIOTING

An 18-year-old youth pleaded guilty at Victoria District Court yesterday to charges of riotous assembly, placing matter on a tramway and maliciously damaging windows and curtains at the Ying King Restaurant, Johnston Road, Wanchai, on July 27.

But the youth, Leung Fu-kan (18), of 14 Mallory Street, second floor, Wanchai, denied charges of forming part of an intimidating assembly, interfering with tramway property and rioting on another occasion.

A second defendant, Lo Shui-kan (37), pleaded not guilty to charges of rioting, directing an intimidating assembly, interfering with and placing matter on a tramway.

Judge Derek Cons fixed hearing for August 31.

Mr David Wilcox, Crown Counsel, appeared for the prosecution.

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SCMP, 11 Aug 1967 (Page 8)

Water Wasted Deliberately

A further instance of a deliberate wastage of water by leftists was brought to light by police yesterday when they searched the Brick-Makers Union in Argyle Street, Kowloon. A tap in the seventh-floor premises was found full on and the water was being drained away by means of a hose.

No one was on the premises at the time. Police seized a quantity of inflammatory posters, home-made gas masks and goggles.

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SCMP, 11 Aug 1967 (Page 10)

Dual-role News Agencies

THE role now generally expected of Communist news agencies operating in foreign countries is underlined once again by the recent announcement in Mexico City of the arrest of 13 members of a subversive group --- the pro-Peking “Marxist-Leninist Movement of Mexico” --- which had been receiving U.S.$1,680 a month from the Mexico office of the New China News Agency. Mexican officials said that the plotters were actually preparing to attack a bank for money with which to buy arms and finance subversive programmes for the overthrow of the government and the setting up of a “popular socialist regime,” obviously to be patterned on the Peking model. For it is in Peking where the two top leaders gained encouragement and support and where they are now in exile. The involvement of the NCNA in subversive activities in foreign countries is of course nothing new. As in the ease of the Soviet Union's Tass news agency and other Communist newsgathering organisations, NCNA also adds to its normal functions the task of interpreting the news for political purposes and disseminating propaganda and false reports.

Apart from being controlled by the Party through its propaganda department, NCNA is also at the same time a government agency taking orders from the Ministry of Culture and Education and its members at times hold concurrent posts in Peking’s diplomatic missions abroad. The disclosure of NCNA’s role in the plot to overthrow the Mexican Government was made during the current Latin-American Seminar on News Agencies in Havana. The seminar is being run by a Russian, a Czech, an East German and three Cubans. Guided by these representatives of countries where news agencies and newspapers are State-controlled, journalists attending are certainly not likely to learn much about the freedom of the press but much about how to conduct subversion and “violent revolutionary struggles.”

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SCMP, 12 Aug 1967 (Page 1)

Bomb Thrown Into Police Station

A number of bomb incidents were reported on both sides of the harbour yesterday including one thrown at 9.28 pm inside the Upper Levels Police Station in High Street.

It is believed that the explosion was caused by the letting off of a firecracker contained in a bottle. No one was injured.

Another explosion occurred at 10.55 pm in Matauwei Road near Chi Kong Street in Kowloon.

A route No 5B bus was stopped before an overturned bus stop sign and a home-made bomb was thrown at it.

A 14-year-old boy, was believed to have been injured by flying glass.

During the day, six bombs were found and were either detonated or dismantled by explosives experts.

In Kowloon, two parcels were found at the junction of Matauchung Road and Mataukok Road at 10 pm.

- Genuine -

One of the parcels found lying on the ground turned out to be a genuine bomb but the other, an effigy hanging on a traffic light, was found to be false.

Eighteen minutes later, another genuine bomb was found in the same location and was dismantled.

On Hongkong Island, a bomb was found hanging on the main gate of the Bank of America in Des Voeux Road, West, shortly after midnight yesterday. It was Inter detonated.

Two other bombs were found Inside the Tai Ping Theatre in Queen's Road, West, at 5.20 pm. They were removed to a side lane by an explosives expert and subsequently detonated.

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SCMP, 12 Aug 1967 (page 1)

BORDER POST INCIDENT
Police, Troops Attacked By Mob At Takwuling
CHINESE OPEN FIRE

Gurkha troops and police yesterday drove off a group of between 30 or 40 people who had crossed the border at Takwuling and attacked three police officers, seriously injuring one of them.

As the crowd was driven over the border with tear-gas and wooden baton shells, two short bursts of machine-gun fire were heard coming from Chinese territory.

A Government spokesman said bullets could be seen kicking up water in a paddy field in British territory. However, no one was hit.

Inspector Trevor Colley, who was seriously injured in the attack, was taken to the British Military Hospital in Kowloon. The other two police officers received only slight injuries.

Two Gurkhas also suffered slight injuries. One of the attackers was struck in the hand with a kukri by a Gurkha.

Up to late last night the situation at Takwuling remained quiet and there was no one immediately in sight on the other side of the bridge.

The incident at Takwuling began in the morning after the border had been closed. A party of about 30 people tried to enter British territory, saying they wished to work in fields on British territory. They were told that the border had been closed because of violent provocations created by people from their own side.

- Warnings Ignored -

Later this group made their way through the fence and were told to disperse. When they ignored repeated warnings, tear-gas was used to disperse them and they eventually moved into the area in front of Takwuling Police Station, still in British territory.

They protested against the closing of the gate at that point and claimed that they only wanted to work their fields in peace and had nothing to do with trouble-makers such as those who had caused the violent provocations at Mankamto.

It was then decided to open the gate and unarmed soldiers and a police inspector were sent to do this.

After opening the gate, the police and soldiers were suddenly confronted by a group of villagers from the other side.

At this point they split up, a Gurkha major, Inspector McKay and two policemen remaining near the gate surrounded by some of the villagers and the others, some fifty yards further back from the fence, were also surrounded by some villagers.

Assistant Superintendent McMahon, commander of “C" Company of the Police Training Contingent, was then sent down with a platoon led by Mr Peter Godber, the PTC commandant, who was in charge of the police side of the operation.

Mr McMahon took with him eight of his own men, a police sergeant, and another constable who knew the paths.

Some men tried to stop Mr McMahon but he pushed through and joined the Gurkha Major.

- Photographed -

Mr McMahon later said that the people surrounding them refused to let them withdraw and asked them to sign a paper. It had six points in it which included the usual sort of demands about not closing the gate, ensuring the safety of people crossing to work and a protest about the use of gas earlier in the day.

“At this time we were all photographed. Some of the people round us were armed with sickles. While the soldiers were unarmed, Mr McKay and I had our revolvers, the sergeant had a Sterling and the constable had a Greener gun.” Mr McMahon said.

“While we kept them talking the Gurkhas began to move up and when the people round us saw the soldiers they began to shout and scream at us. They asked us to make the soldiers withdraw but we said that we would only do that if they would make their soldiers, who had moved into positions near the bridge, move back also.

“At this point a joint police and military operation came into effect. As the Gurkhas appeared at one side, a party of police led by Inspector Trevor Colley appeared at the other. The police and soldiers surrounded the villagers and urged them to disperse. The villagers lashed out with sticks. They knocked me down and struck me several times on the back and I also saw them knock down Mr Colley.

He had blood all over his face and he was rescued by Staff Sergeant Tsang Wing.”

When it was seen that the villagers were attacking, Mr Colley on the ground, gas shells and some wooden baton shells were fired to drive them off. After they had been successfully dispersed, the joint police and military party withdrew to Takwuling Police Station.

Describing his rescue of Mr Colley, Staff-Sergeant Tsang said last night: “I saw these people knock him down and beat him on the ground with sticks. Then some of them lifted up big stones and crashed them down on his head. He was covered with blood. However, when the gas was fired they soon scattered and I was able to drag him away.”

The Sino-British border was closed yesterday, except at Lowu, after Communist workers broke through the barrier and entered the Mankamto police post at midnight on Thursday.

Wielding knives and axes, the workers stood over Mr Trevor Bedford, District Officer, Taipo, and an Army officer who were forced to sign a three-point demand. The Army officer had a pistol aimed at him.

Mr Bedford said later that he told the workers he would sign the three-point demand but was doing so under duress.

A Government spokesman said that in view of the: circumstances, the signed paper was, of course, invalid.

- Demands -

The three points included observing the conditions laid down last Saturday, taking away the fence which was erected on Thursday and paying compensation to the man who faked an accident there earlier, and that non-inflammatory posters be allowed.

After the workers “captured” the police post and disarmed the three guards, they confined a number of policemen and 12 soldiers, nine of them still armed, in the post. Meanwhile, British troops massed silently in the darkness and had complete control of the area.

“It was decided not to attack the workers to avoid bloodshed,” a Government spokesman said yesterday.

The Police and Army personnel were released after the signing of the paper and the workers returned to their side of the border, leaving the weapons they had taken on the bridge.

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SCMP, 12 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

Courage Of H.K.’s Community ‘Epical’

The collective determination and individual courage of Hongkong’s community of 3.8m was epical, the Hon Paul K.C Tsui, the Acting Secretary for Chinese Affair said yesterday.

Addressing the Lions Club of Hongkong at the Peninsula Hotel, Mr Tsui paid public tribute to every member of the community who had remained at their posts and who had put a little more effort into their work.

Events in Hongkong over the past three months had given many examples of courageous acts, Mr Tsui said, citing the examples set by tram, bus and ferry crews who, in spite of many forms of threats and intimidation and acts of violence against them, had remained at their jobs.

The police, too, had continued their difficult task of maintaining law and order, he added.

Mr Tsui reminded the gathering that the Lions Club had a world-wide link and the members could communicate with other members all over the world.

He expressed an earnest hope that this line of communication would be used by the Club to tell the world the true story about the courage of Hongkong's community.

This, Mr Tsui concluded, would be an unprecedented manifestation of a true Lion spirit.

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SCMP, 12 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

Govt Urged To Outlaw ‘Struggle Committees’

Left-wing “anti-struggle persecution committees” should be made illegal by legislation, Mr Yan Chi-kit, Vice-President of the Hongkong and Kowloon Joint Kaifong Research Council, said yesterday.

Mr Yan said members of these committees should be treated as members of a triad society.

“There will be no peace in Hongkong if these so-called ‘struggle committees’ are allowed to exist,” he added.

“I hope Government would take all the necessary measures to outlaw these illegal organisations,” he said.

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SCMP, 12 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

Lack Of Business In Leftist Firms

Many firms dealing in products from China have given notices to their employees terminating their services because of the lack of business, it was learned yesterday.

However, many workers had already left on their own accord for fear of being involved in the present troubles.

Meanwhile, left-wing workers who had been receiving wages from the “Struggle Fund" were reported to have been told to contribute to the various "Struggle Committees.”

The workers claimed that such contributions had further reduced their actual incomes for this month by 20 to 50 per cent.

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SCMP, 12 Aug 1967 (Page 8)

MORE BORDER TROUBLE

BECAUSE it is an international frontier, trouble in the border area naturally worries people more than sporadic disturbances which are strictly internal. But it still deserves to be stressed that the border is rural and agricultural, and that the workers there are either farmers --- who often live in China but cultivate fields in Colony territory --- or transport hands whose jobs vary from pushing trollies across the bridge at Man Kam To to driving lorries carrying farm produce from China to Hongkong. Their first concern, like that of most of the Kwangtung farmers, is to see that they get paid for the job, whether it be production or manual labour. And in that attitude, of course, they are no different from their near neighbours to the south. But because they live under a different political system, it is necessary for them from time to time to demonstrate their loyalty to that system (not without the help, presumably, of cheer-leaders from either or both sides). And because the political system under which they live is undergoing some kind of convulsion which they (like most of us) cannot fully understand, they tend to be “jittery.”

This seems to be the most reasonable interpretation of the present troubles there, and the current policy of “damping them down”, despite the intense strain it imposes on the civil authorities and the troops (who could deal with the local situation, including trigger-happy machine-gunners, within minutes if the order were given) seems to be correct. The border situation, despite the headlines, is not “tense”. For long periods it is entirely normal. The temperature rises suddenly but, once a resolution has been arrived at, descends just as rapidly. So far - and all credit to those who have managed it --- bloodless solutions have won the day, and the temporary closure should have a further calming effect. Such an attitude can, of course, be described as an appeasing one, and the importance of “face” in this particular context must not be underestimated. But the fact is that while a minimum of toughness is essential, it would be shortsighted to apply the maximum while it remains so totally obscure who is in authority, who is issuing directives, who controls long-term policy. We know our own agitators. They deserve the sternest suppression. But when faced by external turmoil which nobody can immediately interpret, to treat its symptoms coolly and with restraint appears the wisest plan.

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SCMP, 13 Aug 1967 (Page 1)

Gurkha troops repel crowd stoning army post at Shataukok

(Photo)

The Hongkong border with China at Shataukok has remained quiet since two separate incidents yesterday afternoon in which Chinese groups attacked property in Hongkong territory.

In the morning, about 100 Chinese, who, crossed into the Hongkong side and threw stones at the fish marketing building, were turned back by tear-gas fired by Gurkha troops.

The invaders had been warned that further attacks on their part would be met by force by the Gurkhas, including the use of firearms if necessary.

Later in the afternoon, a group of about 25 people on the Chinese side of San Lau Street in Shataukok began stoning the fish market on the Hongkong side. The Gurkhas countered the attack by placing sandbags round the market.

- Houses searched -

Up to late yesterday afternoon, Gurkha troops and police were conducting a house-to-house search for anyone who might have remained behind and hidden in the village homes to await another chance to create a disturbance.

During the two hours of the first incident, the crowd broke the iron grille to the compound and the heavy door of the fish marketing building and swarmed inside. The building was being used as a temporary operational post.

Here, Gurkha troops stood their ground. They donned gasmasks and lobbed tear-gas grenades to smoke out their attackers. This caused the mob to break up and flee.

Major D. Moore, of the 1/7 Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Gurkha Rifles, who is the second-in-command of operations, told reporters yesterday that soon after the trouble-makers had been smoked out of the building, they put up a ladder and tried to climb up to the first floor. Here, however, the effect of the teat-gas on the floor below was too strong and they had to give up the assault.

Major Moore said the trouble started about 9.40 am when a large mob gathered on the Chinese side of the border opposite the fish marketing building. They were armed with stones and poles but carried no dangerous weapons. About 10 am they crossed over, and headed for the market building.

- Chinese troops -

While the crowd was creating a disturbance, Chinese troops on the other side of the border took up positions but paid little attention to what was going on. They neither fried to stop the mob from going across nor urged them on.

Major Moore added that after the warning that force would be used, if necessary, the mob quietened down and 15 minutes later crossed back to their own side of the border.

Major Moore described the incident as a minor one.

At Ta Kwo Ling, about 50 men and women crossed into British territory for work yesterday.

They were searched by Chinese soldiers on the Chinese side before crossing over to the Hongkong side.

They had with them one red Communist flag and worked in close groups.

These were no incidents.

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SCMP, 13 Aug 1967 (Page 1)

More bombs planted

Trouble-makers planted six home-made bombs in the Colony yesterday --- one in Kowloon, four on the Island and one on a ferry.

The first bomb, wrapped in a paper parcel at the post office in Cheungshawan Road, was detonated.

The second was discovered at the post office in Pokfulam Road about 10 am and was dismantled.

Three reports of bomb finds were received between 10 and 11 o'clock last night --- one in Shaukiwan Road, one near the Hongkong Electric Company, Causeway Bay, and one at the junction of Gillies Avenue and Pak Kung Street in Hunghom. All were later detonated.

A home-made bomb, planted on board the ferry Man Ling plying between Shamshuipo and Hunghom, exploded shortly before midnight last night.

However, no one was injured and the vessel was slightly damaged.

Police arrested a man and a woman yesterday following a raid on a flat at 27 Old Street, first floor, Tsun Wan, where they seized a suspended bomb, a triangular file and a number of inflammatory posters.

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SCMP, 13 Aug 1967 (Page 2)

Battle of red flags the next phase?

Scores of red flags are appearing on hills and mountain slopes in various parts of Hongkong, if one can believe the local Communist newspapers.

But the only substantial evidence for them appears in the ages of these same newspapers, which duly reproduce photographs of red flags fluttering from trees and bushes in remote and largely inaccessible areas of the New Territories.

Their most likely observers appear to be the newspapers’ photographers who chance, by happy circumstance, to be on the spot when the flags make their appearance.

A spokesman for the Urban Services Department yesterday pointed out at least one opportunity which these newspapers seemed to have missed.

They had failed to depict the red flags which appear on public beaches when sea conditions are considered too hazardous for bathers.

- Traffic flags -

They had similarly failed to depict the red flags frequently used for traffic control at points where temporary roadworks are in progress.

“Red flags which appear on lonely hillsides, and which are occasionally found attached to street signs and lamp posts in urban areas, are more likely to be the work of children than of mature and intelligent adults,” he remarked.

“The extraordinary messages frequently found attached to these flags bears out this likelihood. So does the crude and almost apologetic manner in which they make their appearance, generally at a safe enough distance from human habitation to avoid the chance of beign detected in the act.

“But perhaps the explanation for for this lies in their fear of retaliation from a public rapidly losing its patience with such cheap propaganda stunts.”

The spokesman added that the useful service performed by these flags resulted from their occasional appearance along with explosive devices left in public places.

Here at least they served to warn the public of the presence of barbarous home-made bombs which were designed to inflict serious injuries with a callous lack of discrimination for their victims.

“Here it seems, for once, that a sense of guilt and shame, rather than a need for cheap publicity, possesses the persons responsible,” he commented.

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SCMP, 13 Aug 1967 (Page 2)

POSTMASTER-GENERAL DOUBTS ‘SCRUTINY’ ALLEGATION

The Postmaster-General, Mr Crook, yesterday expressed doubts concerning the authenticity of a supposed letter to the editor of the Wen Wei Po, alleged to have been sent by a “group of patriotic postal workers.”

The “letter,” published in yesterday morning's edition of the Communist newspaper, alleges that all mail addressed to left-wing newspapers must be referred to a senior officer of the postal department for “scrutiny.”

This measure,’ the newspaper claims, is designed to prevent newspapers from receiving letters which “expose the intrigues of the Hongkong British authorities.”

Mr Crook said that not only had no such instruction been given in his department, but it was highly unlikely that any such letter had originated from its staff.

“Mail has been delivered to all addressees in Hongkong, in spite of the disturbances and notwithstanding the attempts of the local Communists themselves to sabotage its delivery,” he pointed out. “Our postmen have in fact been praised for their high sense of duty in this respect.

“In some instances where exceptional difficulties have been experienced in delivering mail, the postman concerned has left notice to the effect that the mail Is awaiting delivery at the post office, and the addressee Is asked to make his own arrangements to collect it.

“This has only been done in the case of one or two addresses where postmen have been molested and intimidated on their routine calls to deliver the mail.”

***

SCMP, 13 Aug 1967 (Page 3)

Fifteen deny hindering police
Search for arms at magistracy

Fourteen men and a woman who were arrested during a police raid on the Wah Fung Chinese Emporium in North Point on August 4 went on trial in Central Court yesterday.

They all pleaded not guilty to denying police access to the building.

One man is additionally charged with possession of inflammatory posters and another three with obstructing police.

All have been charged under the emergency regulations.

The magistrate, Mr A. L. Leathlean, remanded all the defendants until August 25.

Earlier, police searched every one seeking entry into the magistracy building.

- Packed -

Mr Leathlean’s courtroom was packed with spectators when the 14 defendants appeared before him.

Those who brought along umbrellas were asked to unfurl them and everyone had to queue outside the court entrance to wait their turn.

In another case, Mr Leathlean remanded two students in jail custody until August 22.

Yau Tat-yan (17), of 6 Blue Pool Road, Happy Valley, had earlier pleaded not guilty to obstructing police and uttering an inflammatory speech in Sports Road, Happy Valley, on August 10.

The other teenager, a 15-year-old boy, also pleaded not guilty to obstructing police and possessing inflammatory posters.

In Mr P. M. Corfe’s court, a 19-year-old metal worker evaded a jail sentence because he was found to be suffering from active tuberculosis.

Chau Pak-shing was one of two youths and three young girls found guilty on four charges arising out of a police raid in Shaukiwan on July 16.

Chau was bound over in the sum of $500 for three years instead of being jailed, because of his health. The others were imprisoned for a total of eight months each.

They were Wu Yuen-san (20), a welder; Lam Yuk-sin (20), a baby-sitter; To Mei (18), unemployed; and Wong Oi-lin (19), unemployed.

- Raid on union -

Each was jailed for five months for unlawful assembly, three months for restricting police entering premises, two months for failing to report the possession of arms and eight months for being in the company of a person who had unlawful arms.

The sentences are to be served concurrently.

The two youths and three girls were arrested by police when they raided the Hongkong and Kowloon Metal Industry Workers’ Union at 192 Shaukiwan Road, 2nd floor.

An employee of the Hongkong China Gas Co Ltd, charged with possession of about 3,000 inflammatory posters, banners and booklets, was remanded by Mr F. de F. Stratton in North Kowloon Court yesterday for seven days in jail custody so that a translation of the posters can be made.

Lo Tak-shing (19), of 3 Chung Shun Street, seventh floor, Kowloon City, is alleged to have had in his possession 16 posters, nine banners and 2,850 booklets, all of an inflammatory nature.

***

The Straits Times, 13 Aug 1967

Border Gurkhas warn Reds: We will open fire

HONG KONG, Sat.—Gurkha troops got tough today when they warned Chinese at the village of Sha Tau Kok that they would open fire on any attack from across the frontier.

The warning came after troops fired tear gas tor the second consecutive day to force back about 100 Chinese who crossed the demarcation line down the middle of the village's main street.

Yesterday, at Ta Kwa Long [Ta Kwu Leng], a Chinese Army machine-gun post fired across the border after police and troops used tear gas and batons to force back 40 Chinese workers.

‘Open fire’ warning
Earlier more than 20 British police and troops were disarmed and held captive for six hours by mainland workers at nearby Man Kam To police post.

Today, some of the Chinese returned after being dispersed by the troops, and used a ladder to gain access to a building on the Hong Kong side of the main street, a government spokesman reported.

The Gurkha commander then ordered a broadcast to be made over loudspeakers of the “Open fire” warning.

Big hunt goes on
Troops occupied the fish market area on the British side of the village and began searching buildings along the border street in an attempt to ferret out the Chinese.

A crowd of about 75 Chinese remained on the village jetty which juts out from the end of the main street. The crowd later dispersed, but a few were seen to enter houses flanking the fish market.

A Government spokesman said there had been some stone-throwing earlier, but by mid-day, the situation had quietened considerably. Gurkha troops were continuing their search of the British side of the village.

***

[12 Aug 1967] left: Pictures show British and Gurkha troops standing by at Takwuling during yesterday’s disturbance. Arrow points to the hill where a Chinese machine-gun post overlooks the Takwuling border area. //
[13 Aug] Right top: A British army scout car takes up position as troops and Hongkong police set up road blocks near Shataukok following incidents there yesterday. //
[14 Aug] Members of the bomb disposal squad preparing to detonate a box containing home-made hand-grenades placed on the tram tracks in Johnston Road opposite the Violet Peel Clinic. Picture shows a grenade exploding after the entire area had been cleared.

SCMP, 14 Aug 1967 (Page 1)

BOMBS THROWN IN WANCHAI
Ballistics Expert And Two Others Injured
SEVEN EXPLOSIONS

Seven explosions rocked Wanchai last night, injuring three people, including a Royal Navy ballistics expert who had been flown up here from Singapore for attachment to the Army bomb disposal team.

The bomb incidents occurred when police arrived in Johnston Road shortly after 8 pm to disperse a crowd of about 200 people. As the police arrived a bomb was thrown, injuring a watchman.

A few minutes later a second bomb was thrown at the police but no one was injured.

The RN bomb expert, Petty Officer Charwood, was injured when a bomb was thrown at him as he was about to defuse a cluster of home-made grenades contained in a box.

PO Charwood received a deep gash in his right leg from shrapnel.

He was later taken to hospital and discharged after receiving a number of stitches to his leg.

Police said the home-made bomb was thrown from one of the buildings at the junction of Tai Yuen Street and Johnston Road.

Later the other two members of the bomb disposal squad detonated the grenades in the box.

The box contained as many as six or seven grenades. They were home-made, and were cast into egg-shaped pieces about four inches by 2 inches. They had a crude percussion device.

The box also contained batteries. When the first attempt to detonate the box was made two of the grenades failed to explode.

At a second attempt, two more exploded and the batteries were also destroyed and it was then discovered that another two bombs had been blown out of the box. These were also detonated.

Sgt K. Stacey of the Welch Regiment who was one of the three-member bomb disposal squad said after the detonation: “These are powerful and could make an awful mess if they went off together, but luckily they went off one by one.”

- Constable Hurt -

A police driver was also injured in one of the bomb explosions. He was Constable Lee Yuen-wai (37). Lee was discharged after treatment for injuries to his hand.

Police riot units, supplemented by a squad of soldiers from the Welch Regiment, were sent to the area. Tear-gas was used on several occasions.

The whole operation ended at 10.10 pm. No arrests were made.

The police fired 45 gas cartridges and one wooden baton shell during the operation.

At 9.39 pm a bomb was thrown from the Ching Pao Newspaper building at 114 Queen's Road East.

A bomb was thrown at a police patrol in Queen's Road East near Swatow Street at about 9.40 pm. No one was injured.

***

SCMP, 14 Aug 1967 (Page 1)

New Police Post For Mankamto

Security forces yesterday demolished the Police Post at Mankamto bridge on the border as part of the plan for improved defence of the area.

A new post is already under construction on a ridge overlooking Lowu, about 200 yards away.

In the meantime, the area is controlled from military positions on the same ridge.

The Police Post was originally built as a checking point when the local people did business peacefully across the bridge.

As such, it was quite unsuitable as a defensive position in the light of violent provocations such as have been staged there in recent days.

- Slogans -

While demolition was going on yesterday, a crowd of more than 20 farm workers, men and women, gathered on the bridge, singing songs and shouting slogans. They also asked to be allowed across the bridge in order to carry out their farm work on the Hongkong side.

They were told again that the bridge had been closed because of their recent unprovoked actions.

***

SCMP, 14 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

Red Report Refuted

A Government spokesman yesterday refuted a report in the Communist newspaper Ta Kung Pao that a man who had been seriously injured in a bomb explosion in Kowloon City on Tuesday was a police officer.

The paper claimed that the officer, an off-duty police constable, had “snatched a stick from an old beggar to poke a small tin found on the pavement.”

“This information is entirely incorrect,” the Government spokesman said.

The man injured was Chan Sai-Kit (29), a worker in the Wai Lun Textile Factory and living at 52 Tam Kung Road, third floor. He was charged with causing an explosion likely to endanger life or property and had been remanded in hospital until August 19, the spokesman said.

***

SCMP, 14 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

‘STRENGTHEN BORDER’ CALL

Several Chinese newspapers yesterday urged the British Government to further strengthen the border defences following the incidents in which Mainland farmers had forced their way across into British territory.

One of them, the Wah Kiu Yat Po, said this action should be taken as a precautionary measure and also to stop Mainland farmers should they try to infiltrate across to seek refuge in Hongkong.

The Express Daily said the attitude of the authorities to the present overall situation in the Colony was not tough enough. It urged the arrest of all the members of the “anti-persecution struggle committees” who, it believed, were behind the incidents.

It also suggested that Government exercise the strictest search of all people and goods crossing the border into Hongkong.

***

SCMP, 14 Aug 1967 (Page 10)

Extracts From The Chinese Press
MYTH KILLED BY DEFECTION

INDEPENDENT Chines newspapers last week commented on the supposedly unbreakable unity of the “Hongkong-Kowloon All-Circles Anti-British Persecution Struggle Committee” while the Communist publications continued their editorial attacks on the Administration.

Several newspapers commented on the defection of a leading member of the "Struggle Committee,” Mr Wu Shu-tung, who was also managing director of the Communist book publishing firm, Chung Hwa Book Company. Mr Wu is now in Taiwan.

The Wah Kiu Yat Po said that his defection destroyed the myth of the solidarity of the “Committee”-and confirmed the suspicion that there was dissension within the ranks of the Communists. The newspaper commented that for the good of themselves and of Hongkong as a whole, other members of the “Committee” should follow the good example of Mr Wu.

The Wah Kin Yat Po commented on exaggerated reports sent out of Hongkong by Japanese correspondents and called for more factual and responsible reporting in the interest of Hongkong-Japan relations. The Japanese, said the newspaper, should not drop stones on those who wore facing difficulties.

The Ming Pao said it would be wise for Government to keep a close watch on rumour-mongering and at the same time demand explanations from the Japanese correspondents responsible for presenting a distorted picture of the Hongkong situation.

The Sing Po called for more co-operation from the general public to help the authorities in their task of dealing with terrorism. The newspaper said that the open appeal for such cooperation should not be ignored.

The New Life Evening Post praised the boy who alerted the police about a bomb placed in their path by terrorists and commended his public-spirited action to other members of the public so that a stop could be put to bombs and inflammatory posters.

The Sing Tao Jih Pao endorsed Government’s action in making snap checks on the credentials of car drivers as an effective means of curbing criminal activities. The newspaper said that this precautionary measure might cause inconvenience to some drivers but it believed that it would be fully supported by the general public, particularly in the present situation.

***

 SCMP, 15 Aug 1967 (Page 1)

MAN CAUGHT IN ‘BOMB’ ACT
Seen Placing Parcel On Tram Tracks
POLICE VANS ATTACKED

Police were again targets of Communist bomb throwers yesterday. Two bombs were thrown at police vehicles on patrol but no one was injured and no damage was caused.

For the first time since the bomb incidents began, a man was seen by two detectives placing a parcel on the tram tracks in Johnston Road near Stone Nullah Lane, Wanchai, shortly before 9 pm.

As the detectives approached him, the man attempted to escape but was caught and subdued after a struggle. He was later sent to hospital for treatment of injuries received in the struggle.

The parcel was found to be a dummy bomb.

A right-wing newspaper, the Hongkong Times, received a parcel bomb yesterday. It was later taken away and detonated by ballistics experts.

- More Bombs Found -

There were a number of other bomb incidents yesterday.

On Hongkong Island, a bomb was found in Bowen Road near the Peak Tram station at 11.20 am and another was found in Hennessy Road near Marsh Road at 10.40 pm.

In Kowloon, a bomb was found tied to the flagpost of the Chartered Bank branch office in Yue Man Square, Kuntong at 6.30 am.

Another was found outside the American Express branch in Cheungshawan Road at 7.50 am. This bomb was placed in a replica of a black coffin. An army expert inspected the bomb and found it to contain high explosives.

It was detonated on the spot. The explosion rocked a large part of the area.

A fake bomb was found hanging round the neck of a crippled dog in Mongkok near the Sun Ya Hotel, Nathan Road. The “bomb” was removed.

Train service between Fanling and Lowu were suspended for two hours following the discovery of a bomb on the southern end of the Sheung Shui Railway Station platform.

The bomb was found shortly after 7.10 am. It was later detonated by Army Ammunition experts.

At 6.15 pm, a fake bomb found on the tracks near the Yaumati Station delayed trains arriving at Tsimshatsui by 15 minutes. The “dud” was in the shape of a parcel.

No incidents were reported on the border yesterday.

- Heavy Sentences -

Yesterday, a District Judge, finding two men guilty of possession of anti-personnel bombs imposed sentences of eight and nine years’ jail respectively under the new emergency regulations. (See Page 7)

This is the second time that the emergency regulations had been applied.

On July 23, a magistrate sentenced 23 people to jail terms of six years each for possession of arms without lawful authority.

***

SCMP, 15 Aug 1967 (Page 1)

Tightening Of Frontier Defences

The defences of Frontier Division police stations are being tightened because of the recent disturbances in the New Territories.

At Sheungshui Police Station, sandbag and barbed wire barriers have been put up in strategic positions. Police were also busy yesterday clearing obstructions immediately outside the perimeter. Low tree branches were chopped down and long grass was burned.

At the Fanling headquarters, a barbed wire barrier was being erected yesterday on the approach road and at a short distance from the sentry box to prevent anyone from sneaking right up to the station compound.

The halfway gate on the approach road to the Shataukok Police Station was partially closed and watched over by an armed guard.

(PHOTO)

(PHOTO)

(Caption)

(A barbed wire barrier being put up at the Fanling headquarter of the Frontier Police Division yesterday as the defences of border police stations were tightened (top picture). Am Army communications post on the roof of the Takwuling Police Station (above). )

***

SCMP, 15 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

VICIOUS PLOT AT GIRLS SCHOOL

The education authorities are paying serious attention to a “vicious intimidatory plot” in which leftist pamphlets threatened certain teachers at Belilios Public School with “execution” and certain prefects with “liquidation,” it was learned yesterday.

Miss T. Bone, Principal of this girls school, said that three pupils, believed to be among the ringleaders of the subversive organisation, had been told not to return after the summer recess.

“The same action will be taken against any others who are found to be participating in this type of activity,” she stressed.

- Names Listed -

Miss Bone said that the subversive organisation, calling itself a “fighting group,” had been mailing weekly publications, called the “Trumpet” to pupils’ homes. Three of these publications had appeared so far, type-written and reproduced with duplicating equipment.

They listed the names of teachers who were to be “executed,” and prefects who were to be “liquidated” when the “time comes for debts to be settled.”

Miss Bone said that, initially, it might appear that the crude threats emanated from disgruntled elements in the school who sought to appease their educational inadequacy with anonymous warnings of this nature.

But the circulars went far beyond the bounds of mere personal spite, she said. They were a part of a systematic plot to undermine the morale of the staff and students and to prevent the school from operating. The circulars had, in fact, stated that this was the intention of the organisation.

The plot was clearly instigated by local Communists, and was receiving the encouragement of their newspapers, Miss Bone said.

- Menace -

“I have never interfered with the freedom of pupils to hold their own political views but when they menace and intimidate their fellow pupils, when they anonymously threaten their staff and deliberately set out to disrupt the activities of the school, they cease to merit a place in that school,” she added.

A spokesman for the Education Department said that the Department fully endorsed Miss Bone's actions. “If any student of a Government school is found guilty of participating in this kind of subversive activity, he or she will face similar disciplinary action,” he said.

***

SCMP, 15 Aug 1967 (Page 7)

SCHOOL CHILDREN ACCUSED

Two 14-year-old school children appeared before Mr A. L. Leathlean at Central Court yesterday on a charge of putting up inflammatory posters.

The defendants, a boy and a girl, are alleged to have put up the posters on the wall of the Violet Peel Polyclinic in Johnston Road, Wanchai, on Sunday.

Both were remanded until tomorrow.

***

SCMP, 15 Aug 1967 (Page 7)

Weapons And Acid Shown In Court

Two bottles of acid, 18 choppers, lengths of piping and cartons of empty beer bottles were exhibited at Central Court yesterday.

They were seized by police during a raid on the Government Armed Forces and Hospitals (HK District) Entire Working Personnel Union, 65 Lockhart Road, on August 1.

Before the court were 23 men arrested during the raid, who have pleaded not guilty to charges of being found on premises containing offensive weapons.

Insp C. M. Harvey said that the weapons were seized on the roof of 65 Lockhart Road.

He said there were also a number of inflammatory posters and portraits of Mao Tse-tung pasted on the roof which was divided into sleeping areas, a dining-room and a kitchen.

Detective Insp Lam Huen said more than 2,000 empty beer bottles were seized in the raid. The hearing before Mr P. M. Corfe will continue today.

Insp J, Bryant is prosecuting.

***

SCMP, 15 Aug 1967 (Page 7)

WORKERS CAUGHT WITH BOMBS
Heavy Jail Sentences By District Court

Sentences of eight and nine years imprisonment were passed on two factory workers at the Kowloon District Court yesterday when they were found guilty of possession of two anti-personnel bombs.

This was the first time that such heavy sentences have been imposed in the District Court under the new Emergency Regulations.

The accused were Tsang Fai-ming (26), of 71 Hong Ning Road, first floor, and Chau Sik-keung (25), of 165 Main Street, Cha Kwo Ling.

Both pleaded guilty to charges of having in their possession two bombs, being found in the company of another person who had an explosive substance, failing to report an offence of possessing explosives and possession of offensive weapons.

Tsang was sentenced to nine years by Judge R. O'Connor while Chau was jailed for eight years.

Mr David Wilcox, Crown Counsel, said that the bombs were found on the accused by a party of police at Essex Crescent, Kowloon Tong, at 9 pm on July 28.

The bombs were immediately removed to a garden nearby and about 30 residents in the vicinity were evacuated. The bombs were later detonated by a police ballistics officer.

- Shrapnels -

Mr Wilcox said the bombs each contained six metal shrapnels and were designed to be anti-personnel.

Police later seized in Chau’s home six bombs, 32 sticks of gelignite, four ounces of firecracker gunpowder and an ounce of firecracker fuse.

This was the largest seizure of its kind by the police in connection with the disturbances, Mr Wilcox said.

In a cautioned statement, Mr Wilcox said, Chau told the police that he had intended to use the bombs to throw at police vehicles. The explosives found in his house were kept by Tsang.

Tsang told the police that he had intended to use the bombs to menace taxis.

***

SCMP, 15 Aug 1967 (Page 10)

BOMB TERRORISTS SENTENCED

THE exemplary sentences of nine and eight years pronounced on two men arrested during a Kowloon raid and found to be in possession of anti-personnel bombs will meet with general public approval. The sentences were the first of such magnitude in the district court under the new emergency regulations. They are a clear indication of the uses of these regulations. The purpose of the legal system is to deter as well as punish. If life is to pursue its normal course bomb terrorists will have to be discouraged in the severest possible manner — and this applies scarcely less to those found guilty of placing fake bombs in public places or encouraging others to do so. By the same token, the much decried system of British “justice” (the leftists in their reports put almost everything into quotation marks these days, even the “Thoughts of Mao Tsetung”) proved its genuine impartiality last Friday when 24 persons arrested for demonstrating outside Government House on July 15 were each fined $50 for unlawful assembly — as much or as little as it costs a wayward motorist to recover his car after it has been towed away. A 17-year-old baby-sitter convicted of the same offence, unlawful assembly, was discharged.

In the circumstances it is perhaps a little surprising to find that this let-off, far from creating satisfaction, “aroused strong indignation.” According to leftwing reports, 11 of those convicted were lucky enough to have been in possession of $50 or more at the time of their arrest and this money was applied to prevent their becoming a charge on the public purse for the next seven days. “They were then driven out of jail” and “at this they lodged strong protest against the British Hongkong authorities.” It is further reported that during the “trial” the “judge” was “compelled” to dismiss an earlier charge of intimidating assembly; but surely if it was only a quotation-mark trial presided over by a quotation-mark magistrate there should have been no need to argue the legality of the charges at all. No doubt, however, such mental somersaults will prove no obstacle to those who can explain why simple peasants along the border, making spontaneous and unpremeditated demonstrations of their rights invariably seem fortunate enough to be closely accompanied by a local leftist press photographer.

***

SCMP, 16 Aug 1967 (Page 1)

Total Rejection Of Peking Protest
BRITAIN WARNS CHINA ON PROVOCATIVE ACTS

(photo)

(Caption: An observation post at Lo Fong, a Chinese village opposite Takwuling. Outside the post is a PLA soldier (arrow) on patrol. The picture was taken yesterday from the Takwuling Police Station.)

London, Aug. 15.

Britain has totally rejected the latest Chinese protest about recent incidents on the Hongkong border, a Foreign Office spokesman said today.

Britain's Charge d’Affaires in Peking, Mr Donald Hopson, yesterday “repudiated the protest point by point and rejected it completely,” the spokesman said.

Mr Hopkins also renewed the British Government’s warning of the dangerous situation created on the frontier by the provocative acts of the border crossers and the failure of the Chinese authorities to restrain them.

Mr Hopson reiterated the British and the Hongkong Governments’ determination to maintain order.

He formally rejected the Chinese protest and refused to accept the Note because it was couched in unacceptable and abusive terms.

The Chinese protest was made in a Note to Mr Hopson last Sunday.

The official New China News Agency yesterday said that it was the “most serious and strongest protest” over recent border incidents in Hongkong.

- Decision -

The Chinese Note alleged that the Hongkong authorities had “repeatedly engineered provocations” in the border area.

Meanwhile, Britain is considering whether to lodge a further protest of her own about the incidents on the Colony’s border, informed sources said.

A decision is expected within the next few days.

A British protest Note earlier this month on previous incidents on the border was rejected by China—Reuter.

Except for a brief stoning incident at Shataukok, the situation on the border was quiet yesterday.

At about 6.35 am, a group of three or four people threw stones over the British side of the border but the incident lasted only about 15 minutes. No one was injured.

An Army spokesman said four of the six crossing points had been reopened. They are Lokmachau, Kaktin, Takwuling and Lowu. The two still closed are at Shataukok and Mankamto.

The border was closed last Friday, except at Lowu, after Communist workers broke through the barrier and entered the Mankamto Police Post at midnight on Thursday.

Members of the press who made a tour of Takwuling yesterday found the area quiet.

From the Frontier Police Post, they could only see two buffaloes grazing and a lone PLA soldier at his post about 150 yards away.

- PLA Post -

At the foot of the Messines Ridge, about half a mile from the Police Post, was Lo Fong village populated by about 200 PLA soldiers and militiamen and a few hundred farmers.

On the ridge, about 280 feet above sea-level, nestled a PLA observation and machine-gun post which, according to Major Robert Duncan, Officer Commanding a unit of Gurkha troops at Takuling, “kept a 24-hour vigil on what we are doing.”

On the British side, Gurkhas armed with automatic rifles stood behind sand-bagged barricades while others were stationed at well protected vantage points).

***

SCMP, 16 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

Government Called Too Tolerant Toward Leftist Press

Mr J. D. McGregor, Assistant Director of the Commerce and Industry Department speaking as a private individual yesterday, said he felt that Government had been too tolerant toward the left-wing press.

Mr McGregor said no other country would have tolerated the overt sedition which had been practised in Hongkong since May.

“It says a great deal for the Hongkong Government that it has permitted, for instance, certain newspapers to go on day after day pouring out seditious material and making damaging accusations against those who oppose the leftists. I personally believe Government has been too tolerant,” he said.

However, he added, he admired Government's desire to give all expressions of opinion in Hongkong a fair hearing.

Mr McGregor was speaking on “Confidence” at a Rotary Club luncheon in the Mandarin Hotel.

- Threat To Economy -

He said leftists now had apparently decided to do the greatest possible damage to the Hongkong economy. Toward this end, they were doing everything in their power to make people afraid and lose confidence by intimidation, economic blackmail, threats and acts of physical violence.

Mr McGregor said a loss of confidence had affected tourism and caused some capital outflow. But he and Major H.F. Stanley, the Executive Director of the Hongkong Tourist Association, expected a substantial increase in tourist traffic by the end of the year.

He also expected that capital sent overseas would be returned quickly when people saw that Hongkong was still a safe and remunerative haven for investments.

Mr McGregor described as “absolute nonsense” reports that large numbers of commercial and industrial companies were. leaving or preparing to leave Hongkong.

- Unchanged -

He said many industrialists must have made inquiries about prospects in other countries. But conditions were rapidly returning to normal and the basic reasons for these industrialists, companies and factories being here had not changed.

Hongkong’s overseas markets were not affected, its textile quotas were intact, and overseas demand for Hongkong products was increasing. There was still unlimited scope for hard-working, intelligent people to make good here.

Mr McGregor said that during the past six weeks businessmen, foreign buyers and tourists had all expressed to him their confidence in Hongkong’s future.

Many middle-class Chinese who had planned to leave the Colony had now changed their minds and were staying, he said. They included many skilled and professional people. “Hongkong cannot afford a brain drain from it of any significant proportion,” he said.

***

SCMP, 16 Aug 1967 (Page 7)

Two Accused Of Damaging Telephone Booth

Two men appeared before Mr E. Light at Central Court yesterday on various charges arising out of the burning of a public telephone booth in Queen’s Road East, near the Wanchai Market on July 30.

Sze Cheung-chuen (22), of Block A, 27 Gillies Avenue, eighth floor, Hunghom, and Tse Pak-cheung (22), of 20 Cross Street, second floor, Wanchai, pleaded not guilty to maliciously damaging a public telephone booth and causing damage to a telephone installation.

They have also denied charges of resisting arrest. Tse, however, pleaded guilty to an additional charge of uttering an inflammatory speech.

Police constable Au Lam testified that on July 30, while on mobile patrol duty, he saw a telephone booth on fire in Queen’s Road East and, upon investigation, saw two men standing near it.

They walked past his car swiftly and on seeing this he got out with another police officer to arrest them, PC Au said. He added that Sze struggled before he was arrested. The other man was Tse.

PC Tsang Bing-ho testified that after helping in the arrest he searched the booth and found a cigarette lighter, a tin marked “Caltex,” two partly burnt directories and bits of burnt wood.

Hearing will continue today.

***

SCMP, 17 Aug 1967 (Page 1)

'NO CAMPAIGN TO TAKE H.K.'
Foreign Secretary On Relations With China
MORE POLICE RAIDS

(Photo)

(Caption : Mr Roy Moss, Divisional Superintendent of Eastern Police Station, examining some of the weapons seized in the Wanchai raids last night. Bottles of acid can be seen in the background.)

Mr George Brown, the Foreign Secretary, said in Oslo last night that Britain was determined to defend her interests in Hongkong, but he did not believe the Peking Government had launched a deliberate campaign to take Hongkong away from Britain.

Mr Brown was commenting on the situation in Hongkong at a press conference held at the end of his official visit to Norway.

According to agency reports, Mr Brown said he hoped China would heed recent British protests against anti-British demonstrations in Peking.

Mr Brown added: “We have some difficulties. Our relations are not exactly happy, and I wish the Chinese would deal with us and other nations in a more normal and acceptable manner. But we intend to maintain relations and work to improve them.”

In Hongkong last night, police arrested 26 people and seized a large quantity of weapons and inflammatory posters when they carried out separate raids on five premises in the Wanchai area.

The raids were carried out under the command of Mr Roy Moss, Divisional Superintendent of Eastern Police Station. Four police platoons were used. They met with no resistance when entering the premises.

- Substantial Haul -

Mr Moss told reporters on the scene that the raids were very successful and police had seized a substantial haul."

No troops were used in the raids and there was no cordon. While police were conducting the raids, shops in the area carried on business as usual.

The premises raided were the Brick Laying Workers’ Union at 2 Cross Street, seventh floor; the Plumbers Workers’ Union at 13 Spring Garden Lane, fourth floor; the Bamboo Scaffolding Workers’ Union, on the floor above, and their dormitory at 37 to 41 Stone Nullah Lane; and the Hoi, Luk, Fung Clansmen's Association at 164 Johnston Road, fifth floor.

On entering the Plumbers Workers’ Union, police found Chinese characters written on a blackboard — “White Pigs and Yellow Dogs, we know you are coming — don’t switch on the lights or there will be explosions.”

Police, with their torches, found two suspected bombs — one hung on a shelf and the ether behind a chair.

Mr Norman Hill, Police Ballistics Officer, arrived at the scene shortly afterwards, and on examining the bombs found them to be harmless.

Police then conducted a thorough search of the premises and found a large quantity of weapons, including home-made daggers and axes.

Another police party searching the Brick Laying Workers’ Union found more offensive weapons, including bottles of concentrated acid, lengths of piping with knife blades bolted at the ends.

- Re-Entry Permits -

While raiding the dormitory of the Bamboo Workers’ Union, police found nine men on the premises. They also found several re-entry permits on the men which indicated they had been to China recently.

A police spokesman said last night that none of the detained persons had been charged, but inquiries were proceeding.

In the New Territories, police carried out two raids in the early morning and arrested six men.

The first raid was conducted about 4 am at the Yuen Yuen Dairy Workers Quarters in Peng Tse Road, Fanling, where a number of packages containing what police suspected to be explosive were seized. Six workers were detained.

About two hours later, police searched two huts at Wo Hop Shek where they found some firecrackers, detonators and a quantity of stolen property.

Three men were detained for questioning but were later released.

Meanwhile, a report was made to the police that a quantity of explosives had been found stolen from a private dangerous goods store on Tin Hau Temple Hill near Summit Court between 7 pm on Tuesday and 6 am yesterday.

The explosives included a large quantity of gelignite, some black powder and a number of fuses and detonators.

A police spokesman said last night that no arrest had been made and none of the explosives had been recovered

On Tuesday night two men were arrested in Selkirk Road near the junction of Oxford Road, Kowloon Tong, for possession of two imitation firearms and driving a car with a false licence plate.

- No Casualties -

A police spokesman said yesterday that the false plates were hung over the original licence plates and fixed to them by wire. He added that the men would be charged today.

Four genuine bombs were found within a period of two hours in Kowloon yesterday and were disposed of by Army ammunition experts, No casualties were reported.

The first bomb comprising two tins of high explosives was found outside the Hawker Control Force office on the reclamation near Saigon Street, Yaumati, at 7 am.

An hour later, another bomb was found in a latrine on the ground floor of Block “14” of Lofungam resettlement estate. At about the same time another bomb was found outside the Far East Bank in Nathan Road.

The fourth bomb was discovered in Ngatsinwei Road near Fuk Lo Chuen Road, Kowloon City, at 9.15 am

No genuine bombs were found on Hongkong Island.

All was reported quiet on the border yesterday. Military patrols were carried out along the perimeter fence in the Takwuling area.

The only incident reported near the border was a suspected bomb found behind the Fire Services building at Shataukok, some 100 yards away from the border demarcation about 4.30 pm.

Ballistics experts examined the “bomb” and found it to be a hoax.

***

SCMP, 17 Aug 1967 (Page 1)

Pirate Radio Stations In China?

Washington, Aug. 16.

Pirate radio stations have sprung up in China and are denouncing Mr Mao Tse-tung as a “heap of scum” who should be overthrown, Soviet sources reported today.

The sources identified two radio stations as “The Voice of the Liberation Army” and “Ho Hua,” or “The Spark” in Chinese.

The sources added that the “Voice” broadcast somewhere in South China at half-hour intervals and could be heard across the Chinese border.

A partial transcript of a July 17 broadcast was made public here by representatives of the Novosti Press Agency, a non-governmental Soviet news organisation.—UPI.

***

SCMP, 17 Aug 1967 (Page 1)

SMUGGLING RING FINANCING. H. K. COMMUNISTS?

London, Aug. 16.

Police, who believe they are on the trail of an international gold smuggling ring financing Chinese Communists in Hongkong, have uncovered a cache of arms and moulds for counterfeit coins.

The arms — a submachine gun, rifles, revolvers and ammunition — were discovered yesterday by Scotland Yard officers at a farmhouse in Bedfordshire and a store in Middlesex.

Police sources said Interpol, the international police organisation, may be asked to make further enquiries in continental Europe.

It was believed that the detention of several British businessmen who make regular trips abroad was also planned.

Sources believed Scotland Yard had discovered the British arm of a worldwide organisation attempting to illegally export nearly £1m worth of gold to Hongkong.

(Hongkong authorities declined comment on the reports.

“We haven't had any report from either London or Interpol,” a police spokesman said. “And even if we get one, we won't be blabbing about it.”—AP.

***

SCMP, 17 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

Scholarships For Police Children

The children of personnel of the Police Force will benefit in their education by more than $1m in the form of scholarships and book grants this September, it was decided Yesterday.

This decision was taken at the first meeting of the Provisional Management Committee of the Police Children’s Fund, held at Police Headquarters, Arsenal Street.

Mr T. C. Cheng, Chairman of the Committee, said members had agreed to allocate $23,000 to create 17 scholarships in the two Universities and $77,000 for 200 scholarships in secondary schools.

- Books -

The Committee also decided to make book grants, but the amounts had yet to be decided, Mr Cheng said.

The Committee agreed on these further measures:

—Creation of scholarships in certain post-primary evening classes.

—Payment of fees for those attending Government institute classes.

—Allocation of $150,000 from the $1m donation from the Royal Hongkong Jockey Club to build a new wing at the Police sports Ground.

Mr Cheung said that for the time being the fund would be banked under fixed deposit. Long-term investment would be decided at a meeting in September.

***

SCMP, 17 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

Security Measures At Govt Offices

Government announced yesterday that new security measures would come into force today to control access to the Central Government Offices and the car parks there.

This follows Tuesday’s unsuccessful attempt by leftist agitators to cause a fire in the underground car park. It was the second arson attempt in a car park in recent weeks.

It was also learned that from yesterday the underground car park would be closed daily between 7 pm and 8 am.

A Government spokesman said that entry to the car parks at the offices would be limited to the vehicles of officers who were working there, with priority being given to those on essential duties.

Visitors to the offices would have to use the public multistorey, metered or open parks nearby, although a small number of spaces would be kept for members of the Executive, Legislative and Urban Councils.

All visitors to the main and east wings of the offices would be met by a receptionist at the main entrance who would facilitate their admission to the officer whom they wished to see, the spokesman said. The outside doors to the seventh floor of the west wing would be closed. Persons wishing to visit the main and east wings from Queen’s Road Central were advised to use Battery Path.

In normal circumstances, the main car park would be open and available at weekends for visitors to St.John’s Cathedral, whose clergy would also have continued access at all times, the spokesman added.

***

SCMP, 17 Aug 1967 (Page 8)

BRANDISHED STONE AT POLICE

A construction site worker was bound over in $40 for nine months by Mr N. P. Power at Western Court yesterday for obstructing a police officer in the execution of his duty.

Mok Chun-sing (22), living at Chung Shing Building construction site near Central Theatre, Queen's Road Central, pleaded guilty to the charge.

Insp Yip Tai-yau told the court that Mok came upon police officers arresting hawkers outside the Tamaya Department Store on Tuesday. Mok picked up a stone and brandished it at the police saying that Chinese Should not arrest Chinese.

Mr Power told Mok that it was difficult enough for the police to carry out their duties without interference. He pointed out that the police should arrest all offenders whatever their nationality or no one in the Colony would be safe.

***

SCMP, 17 Aug 1967 (Page 8)

Libel Suits Against Newspapers

Allegations of libel have been formally laid against two newspapers for articles attacking the Assistant Director of Commerce and Industry and two police inspectors.

The DC & I official, Mr J. D. McGregor, filed suit on Tuesday against Mr Fei Yi-ming, publisher of the Ta Kung Pao.

The suit alleges libel in the correspondence page of the paper’s June 28 issue.

- Photographs -

Yesterday, Insp M. F. Quinn and Insp D. J. Phillips filed a similar damages claim against the left-wing Ching Po Daily, Chan Har-tse, its publisher, and Hongkong Press Enterprises, its printers. .

They allege that two issues of the newspaper carried photographs of them, an article and editorial that were libellous in content.

The writs ask for an injunction to restrain the newspaper from a repetition of the alleged libel or similar libels. They also ask “further or other relief” and costs.

***

SCMP, 17 Aug 1967 (Page 8)

'NOT PREPARED TO SACRIFICE THEMSELVES'

A magistrate told 23 men at Central Court yesterday that they had been used by people who wrote posters calling for sacrifice but who were not prepared to sacrifice themselves.

“You who looked at the posters are the people they want to sacrifice,” he added.

Mr P. M. Corfe, the magistrate, convicted the defendants of being found on premises containing offensive weapons. He sent all of them, except a 71-year-old man, to prison for 21 months. This man, Li Chung-kwan, was remanded in custody for four days.

The defendants were arrested by the police during a raid on the Government, Armed Forces and Hospitals (HK District) Entire Working Personnel Union in Lockhart Road on August 1.

On the premises were 2,000 empty beer bottles, two bottles of acid, 18 choppers and lengths of piping.

Insp R. E. Bryant prosecuted.

***

SCMP, 17 Aug 1967 (Page 8)

Phone Booth Damaged: Two Jailed

Two men, who set fire to a public telephone booth in Wanchai, were sent to prison for 24 months by Mr E. Light at Central Court yesterday.

Sze Cheung-chuen (22), of Block A, 27, Gillies Avenue, eighth floor, Hunghom, and Tse Pak-cheung (22), of 20 Cross Street, second floor, Wanchai, were found guilty on charges of malicious damage to a telephone booth, attempting to damage a telephone installation and resisting arrest.”

Tse was jailed for another 12 months on an additional charge of making an inflammatory speech. The sentences are to run consecutively.

The defendants were arrested by police detectives shortly after they had set fire to a telephone booth in Queen's Road East, near the Wanchai Market, on July 30. A board and a telephone directory were damaged.

Tse shouted “Beat the dogs” when he struggled with the police. A crowd of about 50 gathered and a detective had to point a carbine at them to hold them off, the court was told.

***

SCMP, 17 Aug 1967 (Page 8)

PLACED TIN ON TRAM-TRACK

A 20-year-old unemployed man who placed an empty tin on a tram-track in Wanchai was jailed for 27 months at Central Court yesterday for interfering with the use of a tramway and resisting arrest.

Yeung Ying-kwong, living in a hut on the roof of 514 Lockhart Road, Wanchai, was fined $1,000 or nine months, to be served concurrently with the other sentence, on another charge of placing materials on a part of a tramway. He pleaded guilty to all the charges.

Insp B. L. Coak told Mr A. L. Leathlean, the magistrate, that on Monday night, Yeung was seen placing an empty tin on a westbound tram-track in Johnston Road near Stone Nullah Lane. He ran away when the police approached him and put up a struggle before he was arrested.

***

SCMP, 17 Aug 1967 (Page 8)

Protest Against 'Unlawful Arrest'

A man and a woman, both 19 years old, who face seven charges of having under their control a bomb, explosives, corrosive acid and offensive weapons, protested at North Kowloon Court yesterday against what they described as “unlawful arrest” and “illegal trial”.

Mr F. de F. Stratton, the Magistrate, ordered the defendants removed from the dock and later the charges were read and explained to them separately.

- Bomb -

Tsui Siu-lam and Lui Yin-fang, of 343 Ngautaukok Road, second floor, Ngautsiwan, are alleged to have had under their control a bomb, 15 triangular scrapers, a file with the edges sharpened, 37 lengths of sharpened tubing and two bottles of hydrochloric acid.

Both were remanded for five days in jail custody pending transfer of the case to Kowloon District Court.

***

SCMP, 18 Aug 1967 (Page 1)

SUSPENSION OF NEWSPAPERS
Court Order Against Red Publications
OFFENSIVE ARTICLES

(Photo)

(Caption: Editorial offices of the three suspended newspapers which are situated in the same building at 123 Connaught Road Central.)

Three Communist newspapers were suspended following an application made by the Director of Public Prosecutions at Central Court yesterday. The suspension came into immediate effect.

The three newspapers affected are the Tin Fung Yat Pao, the Hongkong Evening News and the Afternoon News whose publishers and the printers of one of the newspapers are facing court proceedings for alleged violation of laws against sedition, inflammatory reports and the spreading of false reports.

The suspension, made under the Control of Publications (Consolidation) Ordinance, will last until the termination of proceedings against the publishers and printers.

The application for suspension was made by Mr Dermot Rea, Director of Public Prosecutions, assisted by Mr David Wileox, Crown Counsel, on behalf of the Attorney-General. It was heard by Mr E. Light at Central Court.

At the hearing, Mr Rea reminded Mr Light that on August 10, when prosecutions were undertaken against executives of the three newspapers and the printers of one of them, he had expressed an earnest hope, on behalf of the Attorney-General, that the alleged offences would not be repeated.

However, Mr Rea said, the conduct of the three newspapers had since become worse.

- Charges -

Certified translations of articles carried by the newspapers in some editions since August 10, which the Crown contends are offensive, were produced in court as exhibits.

Mr Rea submitted that under the Ordinance “it is incumbent upon a magistrate to make an order suspending publications of the newspapers” pending the determination of proceedings against the publishers and the printers, Nam Cheong Printing Co.

Mr Light granted the application.

The five executives of the newspapers and the printing company will appear before Mr Light at Central Court on Monday on 30 charges under the Sedition, Police Force Incitement to Disaffection and Control of Publications (Consolidation) Ordinances.

They are Wu Tai-chow (32), publisher of the Afternoon News and the Hongkong Evening

News; Chan Yim-kuen (32), publisher of the Tin Fung Yat Pao, and her husband, Poon Wai-wai (46), editor of the newspaper; Chak Nuen-fai (49) and Li Sit-hung (44), directors of the Nam Cheong Printing Company.

***

SCMP, 18 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

Arson Attempt At Pumping Station

The police yesterday discovered an unsuccessful attempt by agitators to set fire to a water pumping station at Tate’s Cairn in Kowloon.

The wooden door of the station had been broken open. A tin, containing what was believed to be kerosene, was found on the ground together with a large quantity of kerosene-soaked waste paper and joss sticks.

It appeared that the joss sticks had been set alight but had eventually burnt out. A number of matches were found on top of the waste paper.

A piece of kerosene-soaked paper was attached to one of the tubes of the water pumps.

***

SCMP, 18 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

CALL FOR YOUTH DEPARTMENT

A call for Government to set up a youth department to co-ordinate and extend the work being done for youth in Hongkong was made by the Sunday Examiner, a Catholic weekly, in its latest issue yesterday.

The paper noted that there were several Government departments which dealt with some aspect of youth and there were several voluntary organisations which did excellent work in the field.

“But the general picture is one of piecemeal efforts which often overlap, and sometimes conflict, but which leave undone a great deal that ought to be done,” it said.

The only solution to this state of affairs seemed to be the setting up of a Government department responsible for co-ordinating and extending youth work.

“We are all anxious to learn the lessons that the recent disturbances have taught us, and to correct the shortcomings in the Colony that they have brought to our notice,” the paper went on. It pointed out that Hongkong should be making an ideal beginning to its reforms in setting up a youth department. It was well known that trouble makers had tried hard to present the Colony as having a problem of juvenile delinquency.

- Co-operation -

“They failed, but we should do well to see to it that they cannot succeed in the future, and to do that we must make a far greater effort to provide for the recreation and training of our youth.”

The Examiner stressed that the youth department it envisaged should not seek to govern the bodies working in the field, but to co-operate with them and serve them.

“The voluntary bodies could help it to make the preliminary complete survey of the youth of the Colony, their needs for recreation, education, employment, protection, guidance etc.”

“It must also co-operate with other Government departments responsible for some aspect of youth work, the Departments of Labour, Education, Social Welfare as well as the amorphous and absurdly named Secretariat for Chinese Affairs.”

***

SCMP, 18 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

EDUCATION FUND ALLOCATION

The provisional Management Committee of the Police Children’s Education Fund announced yesterday that it had allocated $140,000 from the Fund as higher education grants and textbook allowances to children of the rank and file of the Police Force for the 1967-68 school year.

Much of the money will be used to create 17 scholarships in the two local universities and 200 scholarships in secondary schools. It was reported after the Committee's first meeting on Wednesday that the university scholarships would account for $23,000 and the secondary school scholarships for $77,000.

A Committee spokesman said yesterday that it was decided at the meeting to divide the Fund into two sections — the $2.7m donated by the public to be a higher education fund for the children of the rank and file of the regular force; and the $1m donated by the Royal Hongkong Jockey Club to be set aside for welfare purposes for all members of the regular force and the Auxiliary Police as well.

***

SCMP, 18 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

Gift Of $500 For Bomb Victim

Mr Li Nam, a 51-year-old Urban Services Department labourer who was injured in a bomb explosion in Wongneichong Road, Happy Valley, on August 1, will be presented with $500 by the Kaifong Research Council today.

Mr Li Wun-yuen, Chairman of the Council, will make the presentation in the USD’s Whitfield depot in Causeway Bay.

Mr Li Nam was cleaning a street when an object he swept with his broom exploded.

***

SCMP, 18 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

Policemen And Bus Workers Hurt In Road Blasts

Three policemen and four employees of the China Motor Bus Company were injured when two explosions damaged a bus and a police Land Rover in Shek Pai Wan Road, outside the Wah Fu Estate, Aberdeen, about 1.15 am yesterday.

The vehicles were believed to have hit two bombs, equipped with time-devices, which had been placed on the roadside earlier, a police spokesman said.

All seven men were only slightly injured and were discharged after hospital treatment.

Road blocks were set up in the area after the incident.

A private car failed to stop at one of the road blocks and police fired warning shots to stop it but failed to do so. However, a police spokesman said it was believed that the car was a stolen one and was not connected with the explosions.

- Abandoned -

A private car was later found abandoned outside the Aberdeen Fish Market.

No arrest has been made concerning the explosions or the car incident but police enquiries are proceeding.

A left-wing newspaper, the New Evening Post, yesterday claimed the explosions were the work of the “August 1” guerilla fighting unit.

Two more bombs were found on Hongkong Island later in the day. The first was found outside the North Point Post Office in King’s Road at 8.14 am and the second outside the No 3 gate of the Hongkong Electric Company, Electric Road, North Point, about 9.04 am.

The bombs were subsequently disposed of by Army ammunition experts.

Only one bomb was found in Kowloon during the day. It was found near Block 14 of the Tai Hang Tung resettlement estate about 5.05 pm and was detonated by an Army expert.

At 5 pm, a suspected bomb was found near the Air-India counter on the first floor of the Kai Tak terminus building. An Army expert examined the “bomb” and found it to be merely the personal belongings of a presumably absent-minded passenger.

The parcel contained a wallet, women’s underwear, some biscuits and pills.

***

SCMP, 18 Aug 1967 (Page 7)

Denies She Had Bombs

A 32-year-old woman pleaded not guilty at Victoria District Court yesterday to two charges of carrying home-made bombs. The woman, Lam Mei-chun, jointly appeared with a man, Ma Shu-keung (20), and a 16-year-old boy.

The first charge alleges that she and Ma had carried four bombs in Li Sing Street, Western District, on July 23. In the second charge, the woman is alleged to have carried three bombs with the 16-year-old youth at the same place.

Ma and the youth are additionally charged with being found in the company of someone possessing home-made bombs.

The defendants denied the charges and Judge Derek Cons remanded them in custody until their trial on September 7.

***

SCMP, 18 Aug 1967 (Page 7)

HOME-MADE BOMB SEIZED IN RAID

Police seized a home-made bomb when they raided a hut in Tsun Wan on July 20, five days after a riot occurred in the area, a District Court judge was told yesterday.

The bomb, according to a police ballistics officer, could cause serious injuries at close range.

On trial at Kowloon District Court yesterday on charges arising from the seizure of the bomb are two brothers, Ling Suet-keung (29), and Ling Mun-yau (24).

They have pleaded not guilty to charges of having a bomb in their possession, having a bomb under their control without a licence, failing to report an offence of possessing explosive substances and being found in the company of another man possessing explosive substances.

Ling Mun-yau denied another charge of being together with other unknown men who had riotously assembled in Tsun Wan on July 15.

Insp R. J. Stevenson told Judge R. O'Connor that 100 people attacked the police in Chung On Street on the night of July 15, hurling stones, bottles and bombs.

- Recognised -

On July 20, he said, the police raided a hut at 1 San Chuen Pai Village and there, a detective recognised Ling Mun-yau as a member of the crowd that had attacked the police five days earlier.

Insp Stevenson said Ling Suet-keung produced a bunch of keys. A detective opened a drawer in a bed-room and found a small bottle containing black powder. There were two tins of firecrackers in the room.

Earlier, Mr Norman Hill, the Police Ballistics Officer, testified that the bottle was filled with two and a quarter ounces of gunpowder used for firecrackers. The bottle had a cap with a hole in it, and three fuses passed through the hole into the gunpowder.

Explosions of this type of home-made bomb, Mr Hill said, occurred frequently during the past month and the bomb could cause serious damage at close range.

Hearing will continue today.

***

SCMP, 18 Aug 1967 (Page 7)

JUMPED INTO HARBOUR TO ESCAPE ARREST

A youth, who jumped into the harbour to evade arrest following disturbances in Western District earlier this month, was yesterday remanded for a week in jail custody pending a training centre report.

Lam Ming-kim (18), a factory worker, of 642, Chaiwan resettlement estate, Block 23, sixth floor, was convicted by Mr P. M. Corfe at Central Court on charges of forming an intimidating assembly and malicious damage.

Det-Sgt Lo Bok-cheong testified that on the evening of August 9 he saw Lam, at the head of a crowd of 30 people, break a window pane of the China Motor Bus Company’s regulating office at the junction of Des Voeux Road West and Centre Street.

Det-Sgt Lo added that Lam then ran away and ignored repeated warnings to stop. He drew his revolver and fired at Lam who continued to run towards the Connaught Road waterfront where he jumped into the harbour.

Lam denied that he had damaged the regulating office. Explaining why he did not stop running when he was ordered to do so Lam said he was afraid of being hit by the shots which were being fired. “They were real bullets, Sir,” he added.

***

SCMP, 18 Aug 1967 (Page 7)

Pig Farm Workers Sent To Jail

Three pig farm workers were each sentenced to two years’ imprisonment by Mr T. L. von Pokorny at North Kowloon Court yesterday after they were convicted of possession of offensive weapons.

They were Leung Kwok-chung (20), Lai Pit-chung (23) and Leung Wai-man (32). Two triangular scrapers and a knife were found in their flat in Matauchung Road, Tokwawan, on July 16,

Mr Pokorny said he was satisfied that the weapons seized had been intended to attack people if such an opportunity had arisen.

Insp G. H. Harper prosecuted.

***

SCMP, 18 Aug 1967 (Page 7)

TRIAL OF DOCK WORKERS

The trial of two dockyard workers, accused of intimidation, rioting and wounding a police officer, was set for September 11 by Judge Derek Cons at Victoria District Court yesterday.

The accused are Yu Chuen-lam (21) and Tang Chuen (54). Both were alleged to have riotously assembled in the Taikoo Dockyard on June 6.

Yu was additionally charged with threatening Mr James Cassel, General Manager of the Taikoo Dockyard, and wounding a detective police constable in Shaukiwan.

***

SCMP, 18 Aug 1967 (Page 7)

TWO ON BOMB CHARGES

Two unemployed men were charged before Mr F. de F. Stratton at North Kowloon Court yesterday with possession of bombs, explosive substances and offensive weapons.

Fung Man (48), living at the rear staircase of 229 Hoi Tan Street, Shamshuipo, and So Pun (53), of 209 Block 12, Li Cheng Uk resettlement estate, are alleged to have had in their possession two bombs, two daggers, a quantity of gunpowder and two lengths of fuse on July 31.

They were remanded until Monday pending transfer of the case to the Kowloon District Court.

***

SCMP, 18 Aug 1967 (Page 7)

Witness Testifies He Helped Two Men In Courtroom Cells

Two men had to be assisted to the courtroom from the cells when they appeared before a magistrate to answer charges, it was stated at South Kowloon Court yesterday.

Wong Chun-tin, 19, a metal worker, and a 16-year-old boy told Mr J. J. Rhind at committal proceedings that, while awaiting their turn to appear in a North Kowloon courtroom, they had helped the two men up the stairs from the cells. They said they supported and took the men half-way up the stairs to the landing outside the courtroom,

Wong and the boy were giving evidence at committal proceedings in which three policemen are charged with the murder of Lee On, a Shaw Brothers Studio employee, and causing grievous bodily harm to Wong Yuk-sum, another. Shaw employee.

- Name Called -

The accused are Cpl Cheung Kam-ying (38), PC Chan Man-ching (23), and PC Cheung Ying-ki (22).

Testifying, Wong Chun-tin said that he heard the court calling out a name when one of the men he had assisted was appearing in the courtroom.

When the man he had assisted came out of the courtroom, he seemed to have difficulty in walking and was told by a police officer that he would be sent to a hospital.

Insp Mok Yee-lap testified that he went to the Shaw Brothers Studio in Clearwater Bay Road with a party of police on June 25 after having received a report of alleged intimidation. There he interviewed Lee On and Wong Yuk-sum and found an inflammatory poster on Wong.

The next day, Insp Mok said, he charged Lee and Wong Yuk-sum in Wongtaisin Police Station and took them in a police vehicle to the North Kowloon Court in the afternoon.

- Leaned On Dock -

Both men leaned on the dock when they appeared before the magistrate, Insp Mok said. Lee did not look well and did not make any reply to the charge against him.

Insp Mok said the magistrate then ordered that both men be sent to hospital.

Several days later, he saw Wong in Queen Elizabeth Hospital and identified Lee's body in the public mortuary.

Mr Desmond Mayne, QC, and Mr Michael Asome appeared for PC Chan and PC Cheung, on the instructions of Mr A. M. L. Soares, of Brutton and. Co.

Mr Patrick Yu, instructed by Mr S. K. Ko, of Ho, Soo and Wong, represented Cpl Cheung.

Mr Ross Penlington, Senior Crown Counsel, prosecuted.

Hearing will continue today.

***

SCMP, 18 Aug 1967 (Page 10)

More Confusion And Chaos

EVERYTIME the Cultural revolution is stepped up in Peking to the accompaniment of frenzied Red Guard rallies and renewed denunciations of the “handful of top Party persons taking the capitalist road,” it is automatically assumed to indicate the imminence of an official disposal of President Liu Shao-chi and his followers. So also with the latest move in publishing the Resolution of the 8th Plenary Session of the 8th Central Committee of the Party at Lushan in 1959 which ousted Marshal Peng Teh-huai, the “counter-revolutionary spearhead” of the “China Kruschev” clique. But, instead of signifying the “official end” of Mr Liu, these fanatical outbursts merely cause more confusion apart from disclosing some additional “crimes” of the people concerned (Mr Liu’s sins now extend over 40 years — in fact throughout the history of the Party), reaffirming the determination to eliminate him and his influence wherever it still exists and calling on the wayward to repent.

Nearby Canton appears to be a typical example of the prevailing state of confusion and chaos which is adversely affecting the welfare of the masses and the general economy of the country with workers fighting Red Guards and Red Guards fighting among themselves and security and military personnel standing on the sidelines. As in other parts of the country, it is now an impossible task to determine who and which organisations or Red Guard factions are bourgeois, reactionary, conservative, or true Maoists and, according to arrivals from Shanghai, a similar situation exists in that city despite the functioning of a pro-Mao Revolutionary Committee. The chaos across the border is not only disrupting supplies of foodstuffs and other exports to Hongkong, it is causing further confusion in the ranks of the local Communist leadership who, though normally taking orders from Canton, now depend mainly on editorials in Peking publications for guidance.

***

SCMP, 18 Aug 1967 (Page 10)

NO GAMBLING WITH WATER

THE water storage position cannot be considered as good despite the recent rains, said the Director of Water Supplies yesterday. And the reason for this is simply that we can gamble neither on the vagaries of the weather nor on the prospects of water from China (despite previous agreements) on or after October 1. For those prospects, just as those for a regular supply of food from Kwangtung, are now seen to depend less and less on political directives and more and more on the degree of control exercised or not exercised by the administrative bodies concerned with the collection and dispatch of these commodities. It is true that the sale of meat and vegetables to Hongkong benefits the Kwangtung farmer more or less directly, while the sale of water is in a somewhat different category. But the evidence of possibly temporary administrative dislocation grows daily. If all returns to normal shortly, supplies may well improve. But prediction is precisely as difficult in the sphere of food supplies as it is in the matter of the number of typhoons we shall get between now and October 1. As has been said before, it is the authorities' job to prepare for the worst while hoping for the best.

Further, while the political situation in the neighbouring province remains mysterious and unpredictable, that in Hongkong is within our ken. Here water rationing cannot be made a shuttlecock between left and right. The leftist line is, of course, that rationing is a Government conspiracy and there must be very few people — even one surmises, among the leftists themselves — who can believe this for a moment. What has been noticeable in their attitude is, first, the claim that there was no need for Kwangtung to heed our plea for extra water from the East River (which they attempt to prove by juggling with past figures applying to a quite different situation); second, the “conspiracy” allegation; and third, the fact that they have never once dared to make a firm prediction as to whether the agreed winter supply will be available after October 1. Yet surely they should be the first to wish to reassure the compatriots whose interests are so close to their hearts. At the same time there are some non-Communist pleas for a “token” relaxation of rationing. But this too is a political suggestion. Government would be well advised to stick to its last in this respect, and have regard simply and solely to the common weal.

***

SCMP, 19 Aug 1967 (Page 1)

Mankamto Crossing May Be Reopened
SITUATION ON BORDER REMAINS QUIET

(photo)

(Caption : A tour of the border yesterday revealed that all was quiet. Top picture taken at. Mankamto shows two Chinese Army men on duty at the bridge. One (arrowed) is looking across through binoculars. Two civilians, two dogs and an effigy was the scene at Shataukok as can be seen in lower picture. Arrow points to effigy.)

Top level meetings in Government are being held at present to find a way to reopen the only closed frontier crossing at Mankamto which was closed last week following an incident between frontier forces and Chinese labourers.

Gurkha engineers yesterday demolished a building that housed the Immigration Office in a two-acre plot of ground that was normally used for loading and unloading goods from China.

The aim was to clear all obstructions in the area so as to give frontier forces maximum visibility from Mankamto bridge to the foot of the hill where Gurkha soldiers are manning positions on the summit.

On the hill itself will be built a new police station to replace the one demolished last week.

This part of the frontier was quiet yesterday. Chinese soldiers in olive-green uniforms were seen guarding their side on the bridge and they were looking through field glasses at the press party standing on the hill some 200 yards away. One of them made a sly attempt to wave at the visitors.

- Offer Of Aid -

Hongkong’s desire for a peaceful co-existence with its neighbours was once again demonstrated when the frontier force readily offered to give assistance in a traffic accident that occurred on the Chinese side of the border involving an ambulance. The ambulance was on its way from Shataukok to Shumchun when it skidded and ran into some pedestrians.

This accident was observed by a Gurkha observation post and was communicated to headquarters at Shataukok. The force there informed the Chinese of the accident through a loudhailer and offered to give assistance and medical care to the injured. However, the offer was not required as a Chinese rescue team reached the scene minutes later.

Life at Shataukok was normal as inhabitants from both sides of the border flocked to the market to purchase food and to do shopping in preparation for today's All Souls Festival. “The market is doing a roaring trade,” an army spokesman said, adding that the situation there had remained quiet for the past two weeks or so.

- Martial Music -

Lowu was also quiet except for martial music and propaganda addresses that came through loudspeakers from the Chinese side. The posters that had been put up on the Hongkong side of the railway bridge had been washed away by the rain and no new ones had been posted. But the “donkey” locomotives that were being used to haul wagons to and from Lowu bridge were “gaily” decorated with multi-coloured propaganda slogans praising Chairman Mao and denouncing anything that was not Communist Chinese.

Immigration officials disclosed that on the previous day, 75 Hongkong residents returned from China and slightly more than that figure left the Colony for a visit to their villages in China.

A Government spokesman said yesterday that as a result of recent incidents in the border area, it was necessary in the interest of public peace and order to alter the hours of curfew which apply there.

- Curfew Hours -

The previous curfew hours, which had been in effect since 1949, were from 11 pm to 6 am. The revised curfew times are 10 pm to 5 am.

These new curfew hours are designed to curtail the movement of unauthorised persons in the border area. They should also benefit farmers in the area by lifting the curfew one hour earlier than previously.

Application for curfew passes issued on the authority of the Commissioner of Police may be made to the New Territories Police Depot at Fanling. All curfew passes issued under the original Ordinance are now invalid. The new passes will only be issued in exceptional circumstances.

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SCMP, 19 Aug 1967 (Page 1)

More Bombs Found And Detonated

Five bombs, including one on board a crowded doubledecker bus, were found yesterday, but nobody was injured. They were later removed and detonated.

A conductor of the bus found a paper box under a seat on the lower deck and the vehicle was immediately stopped about 9.20 am in the Central District.

The passengers disembarked and the police removed the box to the Waterfront Police Station.

- Firecrackers -

A Government spokesman said the box contained some firecrackers which were so placed that they would explode if handled carelessly.

A bomb was found in the Hunghom ferry pier at 4.30 am. It was taken away by an Army ammunition expert.

Another bomb was discovered in Tang Yan New Village in Yuen Long, New Territories. It was detonated by an Army ammunition expert on the spot.

Two other bombs were found in Statue Square and on a traffic pagoda outside the Ying King Restaurant in Wanchai.

A suspected bomb was found at the junction of Austin Road and Nathan Road shortly before 9.30 pm.

- Thousands Watch -

Thousands of people watched two Army ballistics experts remove the parcel which was later discovered to contain only pieces of paper.

Two men suspected to have explosives in their possession refused to be searched by the police at Statue Square.

They were taken to the Waterfront Police Station where a search was conducted. Nothing was found and they were allowed to leave.

***

SCMP, 19 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

BOMB VICTIM WILL NOT QUIT JOB

“I will continue in my job,” said Leong Nam, an Urban Services labourer who was injured on August 1 when a bomb exploded while he was sweeping the road outside the Royal Hongkong Jockey Club in Happy Valley.

Yesterday, at the Whitfield Depot in Causeway Bay, Leong was presented with $500 by Mr Yan Chi-kit, Vice-President of the Hongkong and Kowloon Joint Welfare Research Council.

He was also given $107 by Mr Solomon Rafeek, an Urban Councillor, on behalf of the New Territories Traffic Police.

Mr E. I. Lee, Assistant Director of the Urban Services Department (Cleansing), said. that the indiscriminate campaign of the local Communists to bring harm to workers and citizens was “an indication of their utter failure to win the hearts and minds of the vast majority of Hongkong people and stop their steady march to a better future.”

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SCMP, 19 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

Government Warns Nine Schools
'SUBVERSIVE TEACHING NOT ALLOWED'

Nine schools and their branches were warned yesterday that they would be closed if they allowed their premises to be used for the dissemination of inflammatory propaganda or subversive teaching.

The warning was contained in letters sent to the schools by the Hon W. D. Gregg, the Director of Education, who has received reports that such activities had been carried on in these schools last term. He said that weapons as well as inflammatory and subversive documents were found in some of the schools during police raids on the premises.

In his letter, Mr Gregg laid down 13 conditions which the schools must comply with.

The conditions relate to the display of inflammatory matter, possession of weapons, obstruction of school inspectors and intimidation of pupils and school inspectors.

At the same time candidates must not be prevented forcibly from entering for public examinations.

School premises must not be used for improper purposes and special attention must be paid to the provisions of the Education Ordinance in regard to the registration of teachers and the safety and health of pupils.

- Closure Risk -

Mr Gregg said: “If the conditions laid down are not scrupulously followed, or if there are breaches of the Education Ordinance, the school will be liable to be closed.”

Steps would be taken, in addition to normal school inspection, to ensure that the schools were run in a lawful and proper manner, Mr. Gregg added.

A Government spokesman said that any school giving proper education to its pupils would have no difficulty in abiding by the conditions laid down by the Director of Education.

The schools to which letters have been sent are Chung Wa Middle School, Fukien Middle School, Heung To Middle School, Hon Wah Middle School, Pei Chiao Middle School, Shun Shau School, Sun Kiu Middle School, Nairn Road Primary School and Chung Yeh Night Institute.

***

SCMP, 19 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

Police ‘Will Deal With Outlawed Paper’

A Government spokesman said yesterday that police would at the appropriate time deal with the publication yesterday morning of a one-page newspaper in defiance of a court order.

The one-page edition was put out by the three Communist newspapers which were suspended on Thursday following a court order.

The copies were distributed free to passers-by and news vendors.

Mr N. G. Rolph, Director of the Criminal Investigation Department, said yesterday that his men were at present examining the joint edition in detail.

Yesterday’s joint edition named its printers as Chit Kee Printers of Macao but other Chinese papers said this was doubtful.

They pointed out that the type faces used in the joint edition were not available in Macao.

Meanwhile, the joint edition and other Communist papers are demanding the release of the five publishers and printers of the three suspended newspapers.

The five persons are facing court proceedings for alleged violation of laws against sedition, inflammatory reports and the spreading of false reports.

The three suspended papers are the Tin Fung Yat Pao, the Hongkong Evening News and the Afternoon News.

***

SCMP, 19 Aug 1967 (Page 6)

'Strike Call Only Hurting China'

The strike call by the Communist Hongkong Seamen’s Union could only aggravate China’s economy and trade problems, Mr W. D. Leighton, Superintendent of the Seamen’s Recruiting Office, said yesterday.

Mr Leighton said no doubt China’s international trade was being severely curtailed.

“We are aware that there is severe congestion in the main China ports, with delays to shipping of between 45 and 60 days being common,” he said.

- Diversions -

“No shipowner operating a scheduled service could allow ships to be immobilised for such a period and for this reason most shipping companies are now diverting their ships from Chinese ports.”

He pointed out that the exception were those ships which were chartered by the Chinese authorities.

“In those cases of course, such costly delays are not met by the shipowner who is covered by the terms of his charter. The losses in fact must be met by the charterer who again is the people of the Republic of China,” Mr Leighton said.

The strike call in Hongkong could, therefore, only aggravate China’s economy and trade problems, he added.

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SCMP, 20 Aug 1967 (Page 1)

Peking raps H.K.

Paris, Aug. 19.

Chinese people along the Hongkong-China border have condemned the British authorities in Hongkong for “creating tension by scaling off the border.”

The New China News Agency claimed that Red Guard fighters, as well as workers and commune members in Shumchun, Lowu, Shataukok, Man Kam To, Lofang and other places in Po On County across the border have warmly expressed their support for the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Note of protest on August 14.—-AFP.

***

SCMP, 20 Aug 1967 (Page 1)

Six bombs found in Kowloon and Island

Six bombs—three in Kowloon and three on Hongkong Island—were found yesterday.

The first one in Kowloon was found in the Ocean Terminal car park and the second was discovered at the junction of Nathan Road and Wing Sing Lane early yesterday morning.

The third bomb was discovered outside the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank’s branch office in Middle Road.

On the Island, a bomb was found at the Peak Tram stop in Bowen Road at 11 am.

Two more were discovered in the afternoon. One was found at the side of the Victoria Park swimming pool shortly before 3pm while the other was found in a lift at the Hongkong Hilton at 4 pm.

All the bombs were disposed of by army ammunition experts.

- Border -

Meanwhile, the border yesterday remained free of incidents except for a Mao-chanting crowd assembling on the Chinese side of Chung Ying Street, at Shataukok, shortly before 9 am.

The crowd, comprising more than 30 people, used two loudhailers during the slogan shouting. They dispersed five minutes later.

The ticking sound of a child's toy space ship inside an unclaimed suitcase near the entrance of the Departure Hall on the first floor of the Kaitak Airport caused a “bomb scare” about 9 pm.

The suitcase, believed to have been left by an absent-minded passenger, was discovered by a porter who turned it over to the airport police. An army ballistics expert was called to examine the suitcase. The police were last night trying to trace the owner of the case.

***

SCMP, 20 Aug 1967 (Page 2)

Gelignite stolen

More than 360 sticks of gelignite were stolen early yesterday when two men bound and gagged a night watchman and broke into a magazine store in Repulse Bay.

The thieves attacked the watchman in his nearby hut, forced open the door of the store and stole the gelignite and detonators.

***

SCMP, 20 Aug 1967 (Page 2)

H.K.’s citizen soldiers perform many duties in New Territories

Hongkong's citizen soldiers are playing an invaluable part in helping to maintain law and order in the New Territories.

The Hongkong Regiment (the Volunteers) is currently out there complementing the regular army and Police Force in the performance of many security duties.

The “part-time” soldiers, as they are sometime referred to—they are doctors, lawyers, businessmen and clerks in private life—are performing their various tasks with great efficiency.

“They are in high spirits and are very proud of the work they are doing,” said Major Ivor Daniel, who is the Officer-in-Charge of all Hongkong Regiment, operations in the New Territories this month.

- Holding own -

One indication that the volunteers were holding their own against professionals in the regular army and the police was seen in the fact that they were being called upon more and more to assist in the many and varied operations, which include the setting up of road block, carrying out snap-checks on pedestrian and vehicular traffic, jeep patrols and, very recently, typhoon duties.

Not all tasks are performed jointly with the police or the regular army. For instance, the volunteers carry out “village penetration patrols” independently. This patrol takes them to out-lying islands and remote villages. They trek an average of 20 miles a day and are in the field for up to two days at a time.

The purpose of the patrol is to reassure the inhabitants of the lonely districts that there are security forces nearby to protect them from intimidation, of which some of them have complained.

The villagers visited by the Volunteers are as far apart as Kat O Chau, or Crooked Island, on the extreme northwestern end of the New Territories, and Tsing Yi Island in the south, off Tsun Wan.

Some of the villagers have not seen uniformed soldiers before, but any initial apprehension or suspicion disappears with subsequent visits.

- Friendships -

Warm friendships have developed between the people and the soldiers. There had been one or two instances when Volunteers have been invited into homes and offered places at the villagers’ tables to share their meals.

To the villagers, the Volunteers are Chinese soldiers in British uniforms. Many of them speak both Cantonese and Hakka, which is the predominant dialect in the rural area.

A typical village penetration patrol consists of about 30 men, including a doctor and an orderly.

A doctor who has been out on several of the patrols said he was kept extremely busy treating minor ailments of the villagers.

Many of the children have little boils or sores which have to be attended to, while others have coughs and chest complaints. Generally however, they are healthy people.

***

SCMP, 20 Aug 1967 (Page 2)

RAID ON THREE NEWSPAPERS
Secretary of Chinese General Chamber of Commerce arrested

(Two photos)

(Caption: Above, one of the 34 men (second from right) detained by police during the raid on the offices of the newspapers. Sources identified him as the head of the type-setting department and a member of the “struggle committee.” Right, police read a proof in the printing department.)

Police early yesterday carried out raids on three Communist newspapers which defied a magistrate’s order to cease publication.

More than 120 police officers and men entered the building which housed the three newspapers at 123 Connaught Road Central.

One police party entered the premises from the front door. Another climbed over a wire fence to get to the roof from an adjacent building.

The police encountered no resistance and no army personnel were involved.

Thirty-four people found in the offices of the Tin Fung Yat Pao, Hongkong Evening News and the Afternoon News were detained by police for questioning. All of them were later released.

On Friday the three newspapers brought out a joint edition in defiance of an order made the previous day by a magistrate suspending further publication.

Yesterday none of the newspapers made an appearance.

During the two-hour raid some of the newspapers’ workers were caught setting news articles on the second floor but the presses were not working.

Police also seized some posters on the second floor of the building.

In another raid early yesterday, police arrested the English secretary of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, Cheung Ah-chun, at 28 Ko Shan Road, second floor, Hunghom.

The raiding party of five from the Special Branch entered Cheung’s home at 5 am.

Cheung, 45, has been the English secretary for the Chinese Chamber for the last few years. It is understood that his duties were mainly concerned with editing the Chamber’s monthly bulletin.

Cheung is a graduate of Yen-ching, now Peking, University. He specialised in English Literature.

In Taipo, police arrested two men when they searched six premises, mainly Communist stores.

The searches were conducted between 11 am and noon and among the objects seized were a number of inflammatory newspapers. One safe was removed for further investigations.

The two men arrested were found in the rear lane behind Po Yik Street. Both have been detained under the Emergency Regulations for further enquiries.

***

SCMP, 20 Aug 1967 (Page 3)

Twenty unionists each jailed for three years

Twenty members of the Kowloon Plastic Workers’ General Union in Mongkok were each jailed for three years by Mr T. L. von Pokorny in North Kowloon Court yesterday.

The defendants had been found guilty of charges of rioting, obstructing police and being in the company of persons who had arms in their possession.

As the magistrate pronounced sentence, the defendants shouted “protest” and “illegal trial.”

For shouting in court, five of them were additionally jailed for two months for contempt of court. They were Chu Wo-lan (28), Tsang Kam (40), Tsui Fu-sun (23), Law Kui (30), and Ho Fook-loy (29).

Chu was further jailed for two months for continuing to shout.

- Deportations -

Deportation of four of the defendants would be recommended, Mr Pokorny said, since they were not born in Hongkong, and had shown “violent objections to Hongkong’s orderly and peaceful way of life.”

Nineteen other members of the union were also found guilty of the same charges.

Sentences will be passed on them tomorrow.

Mr Pokorny said that all the defendants were clearly members of a riotous assembly, whose general purpose was to attack the police with scrapers, poles, files and corrosive fluid. He added that the accused had savagely attacked the police.

He said they had hurled broken bottles at the police and had ignored police appeals to surrender. Instead they had resisted for several hours.

On many occasions they could have left the premises at 1093 Canton Road but they chose to remain there.

Extra policemen were on guard inside the court-room. The relatives and family of the defendants left quietly.

Mr M. Lucas, Crown Counsel, prosecuted, assisted by Senior Inspector G. Whiteley.

In Victoria District Court, Judge D. A. Davies found a young man guilty of being part of an intimidating assembly, but not guilty of riotous assembly.

The crowd of about 50 people that gathered near the North Point tram terminus on the night of July 11 was “one of the most passive crowds” so far described in any case before him, Judge Davies said.

The evidence had shown that the crowd did not match up to the requirement of a common law riot charge that such crowd must have a “common purpose,” the judge found.

If three or four in the crowd threw stones at police, those persons might have been guilty of riot, but the evidence left some doubt that the defendant, Sze Sze (21), of flat F, fourth floor, Majestic Building, 315 King's Road, North Point, had thrown one stone as a constable had said he had.

The inspector when testifying about this had said he had seen Sze in the crowd and had seen the constable go up and arrest him but that he had not seen Sze throw a stone.

On the other hand, the “intimidating assembly” charge did not require common purpose, Judge Davies said. He found that when the stoning started the crowd did constitute such an assembly.

Sze was remanded for a week for a probation officer’s report.