A rat costing a petrochemical factory millions of dollars in lost production, a neo-Nazi group sending a letter bomb to a member of the British parliament and human skeletons being dug up at the British embassy in Beijing made the headlines 40 years ago this week. October 26, 1980 ● An increasing number of Hong Kong fishermen were netting vast profits by smuggling luxury goods into villages and ports along China’s coast. More than HK$1 billion worth of silver coins, many buried in China since 1949, had flowed into the city as a result of the growing smuggling trade. October 27, 1980 ● A dozen convicted Irish Republican Army terrorists started a mass hunger strike “to the death if necessary.” The “dirty dozen”, serving sentences in Northern Ireland’s Maze Prison, were fighting for political prisoner status. They were chosen by a group of 350 IRA men who had waged a bizarre four-and-a-half years protest campaign in the Maze’s H-shaped cell blocks to be recognised as prisoners of war in Ireland’s political and sectarian conflict. October 28, 1980 ● A Bangkok company director and his wife were suing the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp in the High Court for HK$10 million, plus interest, which they alleged was fraudulently “removed” from their account. They alleged the sum was taken from their joint account without their knowledge and then deposited with the Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association in Kowloon before it was withdrawn while they were travelling in Europe in July 1977. ● Snakeheads in Macau were offering a HK$50,000 (about US$10,000 at the time) “package deal” to Hong Kong that included a forged identity card. The deal came after the abolition of the touch-base policy which allowed illegal immigrants from China to register for an identity card once they entered the city. October 29, 1980 ● The British embassy in Beijing had started to uncover skeletons in its backyard. The skeletons were not part of a Halloween hoax, but genuine bones. Workmen had uncovered parts of 10 sets of skeletons while digging the foundations for a new recreation hall in one corner of the embassy compound. October 30, 1980 ● Hong Kong could absorb a total population of up to 12 million people in the long term, the Secretary for the Environment, Derek Jones, said. And he outlined a few ways in which this could be achieved. They included urban development of Hong Kong Island’s rugged interior, the filling in of reservoirs and further reclamation around Victoria Harbour. Guard dog dentistry, Mao’s widow on trial and Billy Carter’s Libyan adventure ● Angry accusations that King Hassan II of Morocco snubbed, insulted and humiliated Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip erupted in London as the royal couple began the third and last day of their state visit there. British newspapers reported that the Moroccan king left the queen waiting while he went to rest in his air-conditioned trailer. He also delayed a state banquet without telling the royal couple and argued with them about seating arrangements. The Daily Mail quoted an unnamed aide of the queen as saying: “She has never been treated in this fashion in all her 27 years on the throne – never with such incivility.” October 31, 1980 ● A self-styled neo-Nazi group called Column 88 had claimed responsibility for sending a letter bomb to a Jewish member of Britain’s parliament, Frank Allaun of the Labour Party. Phone calls were made to the news media the night before to say the group was launching “a campaign against Jews.” The letter bomb, which did not explode, consisted of a tube of petrol wired to a battery. Vietnamese officials suspected of recruiting Soviet spies, petrol rationing: past headlines ● A suggestion that Hong Kong could absorb 12 million people had stirred a controversy among economists, town planners, social workers and community leaders. They were responding to a remark made by the Secretary for the Environment, Derek Jones, a day before. The critics said it would be dangerous to embark on land development for an extra six million people when Hong Kong’s whole transport system was lagging. November 1, 1980 ● A rat that slipped into electrical equipment in a Shanghai petrochemical factory caused a short-circuit that paralysed the plant, costing it 17 million yuan (about HK$56.5 million at the time) in lost production, the People’s Daily reported. The article coincided with the start of a rat-killing month in Beijing at the time. ● A Pan American test flight out of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York was expected to pave the way for resumption of commercial flights between the US and China after a 31-year lapse. Regular services between New York and Beijing were expected to begin in early December that year with three flights per week out of JFK Airport. This is the last edition of Remember A Day, which looks at significant news and events reported by the Post during this week in history