Newspaper Officials In Colony Gaoled

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31461, 30 August 1967, Page 15

Newspaper Officials In Colony Gaoled

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) HONG KONG, August 29. Three Left-wing newspaper executives were today convicted of publishing seditious material and were each sentenced to three years in gaol, United Press International reported.

The court acted in defiance of protests and threats from China.

The three officials of the afternoon “Hong Kong News” were also fined. The newspaper, publication of which was suspended during the trial, was ordered to be closed for six months. The Court’s action marked the first time prison sentences have resulted from a recentlyinstituted law forbidding publication of inflammatory material in the violence-torn British colony. The Peking Government had previously protested against the executives’ arrests and demanded their release under threat of unspecified “consequences.” Yesterday the three pleaded not guilty to the charges. In statements they said the “Afternoon News” was “patriotic to China” and devoted itself to printing only “antipersecution” news. The “Afternoon News,” along with the “Hong Kong Evening News” and “Tin Tin Yat Pao,” was suspended on August 17. Wu, Chak and Li face additional charges in connexion with articles appearing in the “Hong Kong Evening News.” Wu is also publisher of that paper, and Chak and Li its printers. The Court was told today that Wu and Chak both had previous convictions for producing indecent material. The three are Wu Tai Chow, chairman of the board of directors of Afternoon News Company, Ltd., Chak Nuen-Fai, owner and licensee of the Nam Cheong Printing Company which printed the paper, and Li Siu-

hung, a director of the printing company. They were found guilty on three counts of sedition, two of attempting to cause disaffection among members of the police force and one count of publication of false news. Police and British troops in the colony today searched squatters’ hillside huts where they suspected home-made terrorist bombs were being manufactured. Some 200

policemen, assisted by a company of soldiers, converged on the slopes of Mount Butler and climbed narrow paths leading to the huts. Eleven people were detained for questioning. In one hut, police found a live bomb, some black powder, two watches and devices fbr making time bombs, as well as chemicals believed to be used for making explosives.