20
RESTRICTED
1
Mr Youde
Youdy
PS/Lord Gorony-Roberts
PETITION BY MR PUN TING CHAU
MP's LETTER:
133
(110)
1. Mr Winston Churchill MP has written to Mr Hattersley, enclosing a petition from Mr Fun Ting Chau in Hong Kong. 2. Mr Pun alleges that there are crime syndicates and "swindle rackets" in Hong Kong which pay protection money to the police to turn a blind eye to their activities.
He claims that he has been defrauded of HK $279,000 by one of these rackets, and that the police have failed to investi- gate the matter properly or to give him satisfactory replies to his complaints to them.
The copy
Under
3. Mr Fun has already addressed the same petition (dated 3 January 1974) to Lord Shepherd and Mr Ennals. addressed to Mr Ennals reached the FCO on 26 April. Colonial Regulations inhabitants of a dependent territory should submit petitions through the Governor for his comments and recommendations. I accordingly referred the petition to the Acting Colonial Secretary when we first received it, asking him to advise Mr Fun to submit it in the correct way. I also asked him to let us have his comments when he did.
4.
Having started the process of dealing with this petition by the normal procedure, we should cross wires if we tried to alter it. I accordingly recommend that Lord Goronwy-Roberts should send a short interim reply to Mr Churchill on the lines of the attached draft, saying that he will reply in more
/detail
RESTRICTED