SIR, - - 1 am reminded of Joliet, the newspaper editor in Ehrenburg's
Fall of Paris, who sent a correspondent to write a series of 'inside' articles on conditions in Russia even though the man could go no farther than Warsaw, by the article on Hong Kong by George Edinger. Basically right, but some revealing errors.
'Hong Kong has easily absorbed its swollen Population of two million'; 'there is little crime'; 'unarmed [British] police.'
Obviously he did not learn of the refugee problem and desperate overcrowding in both Kowloon and Hong Kong, nor of the fairly frequent stabbing affrays of the secret societies, nor did he see the very smartly polished revolver holsters carried by the Police.
As for the 'Communist infantrymen with steel helmets and jackboots'? Since when have they abandoned the cloth peaked caps and rubber-soled canvas shoes that were standard equipment when I left Hong Kong in February?—Yours faithfully, N. TRAVERS Cross. Green Cottage, Cock field, Suffolk
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