From the South China Morning Post this week in: 1968
'Left-wingers' were on the retreat in Hong Kong, with strikers 'making an all-out effort' to get their jobs back.
They had been on strike since the Beijing-inspired 'disturbances' in June the previous year, at the height of the Cultural Revolution's tensions between the colonial government and the mainland.
The strikers' main reason for going back to work was a lack of funds, and their 'sudden change of heart' to get their jobs back had the blessing of 'higher authorities' - the Communist Party, presumably - because a 'struggle fund' of some HK$40 million was showing signs of exhaustion, the newspaper reported on its front page.
Half of the HK$40 million had been remitted to the strikers through the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, whose chairman, Liu Ningyi, had recently been purged for 'being opposed to Chairman Mao'.
The newspaper identified several employers who had received requests from strikers for reinstatement, including the Kowloon Motor Bus Company, the Hong Kong & Yaumati Ferry Company, the China Light and Power Company, Hongkong Electric, the Taikoo Dockyard & Engineering Company, and the Dairy Farm Ice and Cold Storage Company. None, however, had made any decision to reinstate anyone.
A government spokesman was quoted saying that 'Peking allegations of ill-treatment of leftist prisoners in the Colony were 'completely unfounded'.'