“Hope For Best? Prepare For Worst” Hong Kong’s Motto: Strong Control Promised

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22940, 7 May 1949, Page 5

“Hope For Best? Prepare For Worst” Hong Kong’s Motto: Strong Control Promised

(N.Z.P.A. —Reuter—Copyright.) HONG KONG, May 6.

(11.30 a.m.)

Hong Kong’s motto should be to “hope for the best and prepare for the worst,” the colony’s Governor, Sir Alexander Grantham, told the Engineering Society at a dinner tonight, referring to the Communist advance in China.

“If it is necessary to take firm action, I can assure you firm action will be taken.

Sir Alexander Grantham said that was the reason why the Government was devoting so much of its expenditure to security and defence and why reinforcements were being sent. The measures were not aggressive. They were for internal security only. “We are men of peace and traders, and we hope it will be possible for us to trade with Communist China without any more irritations and restrictions than we had under the present Chinese Government.

The Governor asked the population to be calm and collected and appealed for more volunteers for the defence services.

The treacherous murder of two British marine police officers might be the first incident in a gradually developing wave of internal unrest in the colony, a responsible British source with wide experience in China said today. The bulk of Hong Kong’s Chinese population was secretly laughing at the way the British lion had its mane pulled in the Yangtse River incident involving the Amethyst. The Chinese attitude seemed to be hardening towards the British as the Communists swept southThe source said it would be foolish now to place too much reliance on the loyalty of a good deal of the Chinese population . Everything possible should be done to avert a situation comparable with Malaya. Today’s murders demonstrated the difficult internal security task that might lie ahead of the, colony’s police force caused by the changing Chinese psychological outlook. The British officers were not only an easy prey to the possible treachery of Chinese subordinates but were exposed to the extra danger of raiders from the comparative safety across the Chinese" border.