official salary, there is an onus on him to explain how this has come about. In the absence of a satisfactory explanation he is liable to dismissal. All comunications alleging corruption are considered by a comittee of senior Government officers who decide (or advise higher authority) in what Bonner such allegations should be investigated. Proof of corruption is rarely easy to adduce; but wherever legally admissible evidence of corruption is available, a criminal prosecution is invariably instituted. As a result of such prosecutions, soven embers the public service were
of convicted or corruption charges during 1966/87. Sometimes the evidence available is not sufficient to justify criminal proceedings but my still be adequate to justify a disci linary inquiry into the actions of a public servant and during the same year, twenty-three public servants wore dismissed as a result of such inquiries. The Hong Kong Government is continually seeking now ways and means of dealing with the problem.
It is easy to see that the danger of corruption amongst the Hawker Control Force is nigh because the complicted regulations that they have to administer may not be fully understood by the poorly educated hawkers with whom they have to deal. If those who have the confidence of the hawker comunity would help to explain what the regulations are and why they are necessary, it would do much to help eliminate the opportunities for corruption. In the longer term, the younger generation, born in Hong Kong, better educated and lacking their rents' experience of corruption in re- com unist China, will, e hope, reject corruption as a way of life, whether they be members of the public generally or of the public service.
(SHEPHERD )