COMMUNISTS’ DISRUPTIVE TACTICSEXPLOSIVE STRIKE SITUATION IN HONG KONG COLONY

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 December 1949, Page 5

COMMUNISTS’ DISRUPTIVE TACTICS—EXPLOSIVE STRIKE SITUATION IN HONG KONG COLONY

HONG KONG, December 28 (Rec. 11 a.m.).—An explosive strike - situation deteriorated tonighfas Hong Kong busmen sent an ultimatum to the employers threatening to stop work if their demands for higher pay and better conditions are not met by Saturday.

Hong Kong is faced with the threat of a general strike. The tramway employees are already on strike and the employees in other public utilities, including telephone, electricity, gas and postal workers, are considering their attitude. The arrival in Hong Kong from Communist Canton of a group of “Official sympathisers” threatens to shift the disputes from the industrial to the political sphere. Responsible observers in Hong Kong have, for many months past, predicted that the Communists would instigate a general strike in Hong Kong. « After the fall of Canton and the occupation of South China adjacent to Hong Kong by the Chinese Communists, these observers expressed the

view that the Communists would not risk a frontal attack on the” British colony. They thought that the Communists would try .to paralyse' the colony through . strikes and' thus demonstrate their power in an attempt to win concessions.