§ Mr. T. Reidasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will now make a statement about the cause of the riots in connection with the eviction of squatters from Kowloon.
§ Mr. Rees-WilliamsOn 5th January, as a necessary precaution against the threat of fire and disease, some 54 wooden huts were dismantled in the area known as the Walled City of Kowloon, after eviction orders had been made by the Court, the occupants being offered sites elsewhere. On 7th January, a party of Chinese officials from the neighbouring Chinese province of Kwantung visited the Walled City, and one of them addressed a crowd under the Chinese flag. At the same time exaggerated and misleading reports appeared in some sections of the Chinese language Press in Hong Kong.
Thereafter, in defiance of the Court's order, a number of huts were illegally re-erected on the former sites. Police sent to move them on 12th January were attacked on their way to the Walled City by a heavy barrage of stones from a crowd of over 100 persons. The disorder thus started by organised resistance 93W to the police in the execution of their duty was I regret to say, inspired partly, if not wholly, by the activities of the Chinese officials to whom I have referred, and the misleading and exaggerated reports in the Chinese Press.