1967 riots primary sources

One publication which you might want to have a look at, if you haven’t done so already, is a book titled “Colony in Conflict” by John Cooper, published by Swindon in 1970.

It details the circumstances of the 1967 riots extremely well. Not sure how easy it would be to obtain a copy however; I have seen one first edition being sold online with an asking price of £500!

(You read correctly - five hundred GBP)!

Dear mcshkdk,

There may be useful newspapers in this database - you can search by putting the date in a YYYY-MM-DD format and use the filters to select languages you prefer: https://mmis.hkpl.gov.hk/web/guest/old-hk-collection

There are lots of digitised newspapers from across the world, including Hong Kong, here and you might like to search "Far Eastern Economic Review" in the search bar at the top right: https://archive.org/details/newspapers

Re. SCMP: I'd advise not to purchase an SCMP login from the SCMP website itself. They say that a subscription gives you access to archives - but their archives do not go back to the 1960s.

Your university or a local library might have digital access to SCMP, Far Eastern Economic Review and other resources via ProQuest and/or Nexis.

(I'm afraid I don't have a link for either of the reports you mention.)

In addition, your institution or a local library might have access to or request a trial to Gale’s digitised collection of British Foreign Office papers: https://www.gale.com/c/china-and-the-modern-world-hongkong-britain-and-china-part-ii

Some other misc. digital resources:
https://mmis.hkpl.gov.hk/browse-collection?from_menu=Y&dummy=
https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr97-98/english/former/lc_sitg.htm
https://archive.org/details/canadahongkonglibrary
https://webb-site.com/dbpub/

Lastly, just to mention that whenever you read secondary literature about the topic, try to follow up on the primary sources those scholars reference.

Hope this helps with your research.

Hi there,

I have written extensively about both the 1966 and 1967 Riots You can find references to original materials I my book ‘Criminal Justice in Hong Kong’ ( a bit of a misleading title, as you’ll see if you read it). The book is available from Routledge and your University Library should also be able to get it for you via Inter-library loan. I’ve written quite a few articles etc - try to Google my name in Google Scholar.

Ray Yep has also used archival material in his work on the 1967 Riots. Ray is now at Bristol University HK Research Centre - you can trace him there or via Google Scholar. Both of us cite original materials, often with extensive quotes from the materials archived both in the British National Archives at Kew and the HK Public Records Office. The National Archives Catalogue can be accessed via the internet; some files have been digitised so you can read material online; they will also send you copies of any files you request, for a small fee. 
if you are ever in the UK you are welcome to come & search through my collection of stuff - I have copies of the National Archives & the HK Public Records Office files, as well as camera images of the HK files.If you try the  National Archives Catalogue you might begin by searching through C9129 for starters.

happy to help if you need more!

Carol A. G. Jones

p.s. If you are in France or Germany you might try the archives kept by the French Missions in HK or German churches such as the Lutheran Church. As far as I know, no-one has ever looked at their files of events in 1967, though their missionaries were undoubtedly affected by the riots.

By the way, I have a copy of the 1966 Riot report, and the book ‘Colony in Conflict’  and numerous newspaper items. I also have copies of the  original Archived files

Carol A G Jones

In response to mcshkdk's post re the 67 riots, I write to say that although i have no reports/scholarly tomes on the subject I do have a cple of scrapbooks with original Star and SCMP articles (along with some gory photos of bomb victims and arrests of rioters and attendant riot footage also including a snr RHK Police bomb disposal officer fallen in his duty whilst trying to secure the area in Causeway Bay, if memory serves). the papers weren't shy of showing  graphic photos of  murder victims, motor accidents  etc in those days and in fact there's a crazy snap of a guy leaping from a rooftop to an unfortunate  end. landing near the fire brigade's hand held  safety net - not yet  quite in position....

Anyhow if any of these articles would be of interest ypu may contact me. Also there are articles on Typhoon Rose  in 66 and a huge washed away segment of road  and cars being swept away down the hill to Nth Point proper(Tin Hau emple Rd)out front of Hilltop and Scyscaraper Mansions Nth Point where I used to live.

Hi Professor Jones,

Thank you so much for your detailed post and invaluable advice. Your tips on accessing archival materials, particularly from the British National Archives and HK Public Records Office, have already been very helpful. I’ve started exploring those resources, and I’m finding a lot of useful material for my research.

I know this is a long shot as I’m reaching out a few months later, but I would greatly appreciate it if you had any digital copies of archives that you could share. I completely understand if that’s not convenient for you, and I don’t want to impose.

I’m studying in the UK, so I might take you up on your kind offer to search through your collection in the future! I’d love to correspond more if you’re open to it, and I’d be happy to share my student email address with you if that’s okay.

Thanks!