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to say that wealthy, but honest, officers should not be forced
to go through the ignominious experience of having to appear
in court to explain their wealth or lavish way of life. A
properly conducted investigation should prevent such a situation
ever arising. It is very important that we should retain a provision
to the effect that no prosecution be instituted without the consent
of the Attorney General; but I strongly recommend that this community
does not continue to tie the hands of its Attorney General, and its police force, by permitting section 10(2), in its present form, to
remain on the statute book.
They
Turning now to the Royal Hong Kong Police Force. were very conscious of the inhibiting effect of section 10(2).
Mr. Dawson said in evidence something to this effect:-
"I wanted to arrest Godber as soon as there
was evidence to justify this; but I regarded this 7-day period in the Attorney General's letter as a sort of moritorium during which our hands were tied."
Generally, the attitude of those senior police officers when testifying
before the Commission might be summed up in these words:
"We had a strong case. The matter was in the hands of the lawyers - the Attorney General
and Ir. Gunston. We did not want to do
anything which Godber might regard as
harassment or which could otherwise conceivably
be held against us when the case came to court."
They did cause Godber to be put on the Watch List. Therefore, the
possibility that Godber might try to escape was clearly adverted to
by ir. Dawson and his colleagues in the Anti-Corruption Office. But
the result of placing Godber on the Watch List meant only that the
Immigration officers were alerted. Nothing was said to the police
constables patrolling the security areas or manning the entrance
gates and police guard posts. Indeed, so far as I can ascertain,
no one in the police, outside the circle of certain officers in the
Anti-Corruption Office, Ir. Dawson and Mr. Sutcliffe, new officially that Godber was under investigation. Of course, there were plenty
of rumours. Er. Paul Grace said that he suspected that some thing
of this sort was afoot; and, as he said, news of the search of
Godber's flat on 4th June "spread like wildfire throughout the
Force. But no one was told anything officially. Presumably, the
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