Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London S.W.1
14 November, 1973
344
From the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
336
RLF.
Thank you for your letter of 7 November. The Governor has already announced that we will be helping the new Anti- Corruption Commission by sending police officers from here. In his speech in Legislative Council on 17 October he said "In due course we will be appointing one or two more (officers) from United Kingdom police forces, at different levels, with special experience of anti-corruption work". There is, therefore, no reason why we should not make this fact public.
No United Kingdom police officer has yet, in fact, been appointed. But Murray MacLehose himself and the new Director of Operations, John Prendergast, have discussed the question with the police authorities here, including Sir Robert Mark. The obvious need is to find the right police officer or officers rather than to appoint someone in a hurry for the sake of apparent progress. It may be, therefore, that no appointment will be made until Prendergast arrives in mong Kong next month and surveys the operational requirements of his Unit. A public reference to help from the United Kingdom police might have more impact if we waited until an appoint- ment is actually made. But, as I say, there is no reason why we should not refer to this now if it would be helpful.
Sir John Tilney, M.P.,
3 Victoria Square,
London,
S.W.IW OQZ
Anthony Royle
% 996 a 244 at 2960264
1.P.3.4 S. HIL Yeat
PERSONAL