Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London S.W.1
29 October, 1973
301
From the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
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You wrote to me on 19 October enclosing a letter from your constituent Mrs. Ann Maher of 24 Bishop Ken Road, Harrow Weald, Middlesex. Mrs. Maher had put forward questions about the case of ex-Superintendent Godber which had been raised by her sister in Hong Kong.
Because Hong Kong is a Crown colony it does not mean that it has no control over its own affairs. The colony has its own government and legislature which deal with its internal affairs, subject to the guidance of the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and the help and advice of his officials in London. The problem of corruption in Hong Kong is therefore a matter essentially for the Hong Kong Government.
I had extensive discussions with the Governor on this question when he was in this country recently, and as you will see from the enclosed extract of his recent speech to Legislative Council, he is taking vigorous measures to tackle this very worrying problem. As the Governor says in his speech, he is consulting with us on the many and complicated recommendations of the report on corruption by a judge of the Hong Kong High Court. It is the Governor's intention that his proposals for action on these recommend- ations should be announced during the motion of thanks in reply to his address in Legislative Council on 14 November.
You constituent's sister is right in stating that English common law forms the basis of the Hong Kong legal system, with certain mɔdifications by local ordinances to take account of the special requirements of the colony and of Chinese custom. The word "ōmit" must
The word "omit" must, I think, be a misprint. It was precisely such a modification to take account of the special circumstances of Hong Kong which
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send blot let HK Yeah Doo
/explains
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