‘This is our darkest hour’: students at Queen Elizabeth School ask British monarch for help during Hong Kong’s anti-government protest crisis

Six students write to Buckingham Palace to ask queen to weigh in on protesters’ demands and allegations of police brutality

Principal says action is ‘absolutely irresponsible and unacceptable’, as it involves students in political propaganda

Reading Time:3 minutes

Queen Elizabeth School opened in Mong Kok in 1954. The school was founded to coincide with Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. Photo: Handout

Published: 9:49pm, 22 Nov 2019Updated: 11:06am, 24 Nov 2019

Students from Queen Elizabeth School have written to Buckingham Palace to ask the British monarch to stand with Hong Kong through the city’s current anti-government protest crisis.

The six students who wrote the letter, which was posted on Facebook on Friday, told the Post they asked the queen to weigh in on protesters’ demands, which include universal suffrage and an independent investigation into the use of force by police.

The 700-word letter started with a plea for the queen’s support in the “defence of freedom and democracy” in Hong Kong and background on how the now-withdrawn extradition bill had motivated an estimated two million people to take to the streets. The letter also highlighted allegations of police violence in the handling of the citywide protests.

“Protesters, subdued arrestees, journalists and first-aiders are subjected to excessive, retaliatory and lethal violence,” the students’ letter said.

It also mentioned Chow Tsz-lok, the University of Science and Technology student who fell to his death at a car park this month during a police dispersal operation, and the situation at Polytechnic University, where students have been besieged by police since Sunday.

Queen Elizabeth after attending Christmas Day service in Sandringham in 2015. Photo: Reuters

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x