Antikvariat Bryggen - Jul | Christmas | 2023

THE HONG KONG RIOTS
37
JOHN COOPER
Colony in Conflict.
The Hong Kong disturbances May 1967-
January 1968.
Hong Kong: Swindon Book Company, 1970. 8vo.
Publisher’s red boards, gilt to upper board and spine. In
dust jacket.
INSCRIBED by Cooper to front free end paper: Colonel
and Mrs. Meldrum, Best wishes John Cooper, May 1971.
A central book work the 1967 Hong Kong Riots.
The trigger to the riot was a labor dispute that began in
April 1967 at the Hong Kong Artificial Flower Works, a
factory owned by the local tycoon Li Ka-shing. Workers
became angry over wage cuts and a ban on taking
leave, and mass firings enraged them further.
The dispute turned violent in May, setting off months
of large-scale unrest across the city, including deadly
riots in North Point, a district that was an enclave for
Communist sympathizers.
Those sympathizers were deeply influenced by Mao
Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, the decade of upheaval
on the Chinese mainland that began in 1966 and had
dramatic, often violent effects across the country. But the
unrest in Hong Kong also reflected years of frustration
over local problems, including a lack of social mobility.
Source: New York Times, Ives & Chen, Sept. 16, 2019.
From the book: […]
The situation, however, deteriorated on May 21 and 22.
Because of the increased violence of the protestors, a
curfew was implemented. Ranks of police faced crowds
hurling insults, spitting and sometimes even throwing
acid. Officers’ strict discipline and stringent training paid
dividends. Staunchly, the thin khaki line held firm.
A series of token stoppages and strikes took place at the
end of May and public transport services were very badly
affected. Bus and tram drivers were threatened, sometimes
attacked, if they went to work to keep Hong Kong on the
move. The police were deployed to protect those bus and
tram drivers, who decided to go to work, from intimidation
and violence, so that public transport in the territory
would not be completely paralyzed.
[…]
Those early days in May 1967 were the start of a torrid,
worrying summer. From mid-July, the mass protests tapered
off, to be replaced by a campaign of terror and bombing.
There were reports that “bombs were made in classrooms
of left-wing schools and planted indiscriminately on the
streets.” 19 Between May and 31st December 1967 there
were 8,074 suspected bombs dealt with by bomb disposal
teams with a total of 1,167 bombs found to be genuine.
The entire population was revolted by the bombings,
particularly when a seven-year-old girl and her brother,
aged two, playing outside their North Point home were
killed. The bombing incidents also killed a military bomb
disposal officer, Sergeant Charles Workman, while he was
examining a bomb on the top of Lion Rock.
7 500,- | £560 | $700
FIRST OBTAINABLE EDITION
38
PETTER DASS
Beskrivelse over Nordlands Amt i Tronhiems Stift:
Først udgivet under Titel Nordlands Trompet,
i versforfattet af Peter Dass, fordum Sogne-
Præst til Alstahoug Menigheder i Nordladene.
Oplagt paa nye, og med Anmerkninger oplyset
og forøget af Albert Christian Dass.
Kiøbenhavn: Andreas Hartvig Godiche, 1763. 8vo. Contemporary
half leather, gilt to spine. In slip case.
Light wear to corners. Lightly chipped to upper spine
end. Cut in upper corner of front free end paper.
PROVENANCE: Lunge Larsen, catalogue 8 (1966), lot 60.
A highly representative contemporary binding on the
first attainable edition of this central book in Norwegian
literature.
15 000,- | £1 125 | $1 400
20 Bibliophilia | Jul | Christmas | 2023