Force denies political motivation in changes to history of deadly period
SARAH KARACSsarah.karacs@scmp.com
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 04 October, 2015, 3:25am
UPDATED : Sunday, 04 October, 2015, 11:38am
Riot police face down demonstrators in May 1967. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Police have pledged to conduct a high-level review of recent controversial revisions made to the force's official account of the deadly 1967 riots, changes they deny are politically motivated.
The changes - made to an entry on the force's website - include using the term "gunmen" in place of "communist militia" and adding references to left-wing protesters waving copies of Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung , also known as the Little Red Book.
The force had explained the changes were made to "trim" the 1,900 pages of text. But it later left unanswered questions posed by the Sunday Morning Post on why there was a need to shorten content on its webpage, where space is infinite.
The amendments were highlighted by Keith Lomas, chairman of the London-based Royal Hong Kong Police Association, in a letter of complaint to Commissioner of Police Stephen Lo Wai-chung.
In its response to Lomas, a former deputy commissioner who now heads the association of more than 700 Britain-based retired Hong Kong officers, the force said: "[There was] no intention at all to play down the atrocity of the mob or the sufferings and contributions of our old comrades who fought bravely or even lost their lives in the riots."
It added in response to a Post enquiry: "The purpose of updating the contents related to police history of the force's public page was to simplify the contents and there was no question of political or other purposes."
The force promised in correspondence to retired officers to set up a "high-level working group" to review the online amendments.
References to leftist protesters waving Quotations from Chairman Mao were deleted in the police's official history. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Further questions by the Post - on why there was a need to amend the account, who had authorised the changes and when they were made - went unanswered. So were queries about how many words the text had been shortened by.
Former officers criticised the police claim that the changes were meant to save space as a "lame excuse".
They asked the force to clarify whether the amendments were authorised by internal parties or requested by an external body.
"These changes are very insensitive to those officers who served, and to the families of officers who were murdered serving in the force at the time," said one retired officer who served in 1967.
"It is very important that history is not tinkered with."
Brian Coak, who joined the force as an inspector in 1962 and lost a friend to a bomb on Percival Street in Causeway Bay, said he was "incensed" when he heard about the changes.
Coak hoped the working group would include in the account the names of officers who were wounded and killed during the unrest, to honour them.
The 1967 riots were an extension of the mainland's Cultural Revolution, during which pro-Beijing radicals resorted to violence in trying to overthrow Hong Kong's colonial government.
Deleted from the previous online account were detailed descriptions of pro-Beijing mobs threatening bus and tram drivers who refused to strike, attacks on members of the public and the behaviour of local "red elites".
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1863900/police-vow-review-changes-history-citys-1967-riots
