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'.' The mainland's official New China News Agency (Xinhua), in a radio report monitored in Tokyo, alleged that '50 patriotic Chinese' had been kidnapped by the British and thrown into 'a concentration camp on Mt Davis Road'. There, they were suffering from hunger and cold, were savagely beaten and were not given medical treatment. Mr T.G.P. Garner, the deputy prisons commissioner, called the allegations ridiculous. 'He said that everyone knew what the weather was like in Hong Kong just now, adding: 'It is probably cold in Peking, where the writer of this claim is staying'.' Peking's allegations that its 'compatriots' were suffering from cold in Stanley Prison were also ridiculed in an editorial headlined 'Freezinghot Prisoners'. 'It is hard to concoct a lie that sounds plausible at any time,' the editorial noted, let alone one on a day when children were complaining of sunburn. It also noted that, 'Hong Kong has never objected to Communists in its midst or the thoughts of Chairman Mao. What it does oppose are people who threaten to upset the peace, harmony and order of the Colony.' In London, Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart reported in Parliament on his government's draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council for comprehensive mandatory sanctions against the breakaway colony of Rhodesia. Mr Stewart denied allegations by some MPs that the call for sanctions was 'a vindictive attempt to destroy Rhodesia's economy'. Films screened in Hong Kong's cinemas this week included In the Heat of the Night starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, The War Wagon starring John Wayne and Kirk Douglas, and Run Run Shaw's Spring Blossoms ('unwed daughters are a headache for matchmaking mums!'). Cinema-goers were also invited to book early for a coming attraction, Casino Royale, a spy spoof directed by John Huston and starring Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, David Niven and Woody Allen.
