EVD 21/1/1
F
B H Dinwiddy Esq
52
10 FEB 1975
HKK14/1
ROYAL COMMISSION ON STANDARDS OF
Hong Kong and Indian Ocean Dept
Foreign and Commonwealth Office King Charles Street
SW1
CONDUCT IN PUBLIC LIFE
20, GROSVENOR HILL
LONDON, WIX OHX
TELEPHONE: 01-629 6183
LAST
REF.
MEX1
REF.
(42 (100)
3 February 1975
Dear Dinwiddy,
We spoke, and I described the general scope and objectives of this Royal Commission. I enclose a note setting out our composition and terms of reference for your information.
As I explained, we should be very grateful if you could obtain for us some background information about the law on corruption in Hong Kong and the special arrangements for investigating it that have been established there. Hong Kong is not of course within our terms of reference, and we are not concerned with the extent of the corruption problem there or elsewhere in the Commonwealth. But it appears to us from recent newspaper articles (particularly David Bonavia's article in the Times today) that there may be some interesting features in the Hong Kong experience which we could usefully study. In particular we are interested in the following two points:-
(i) The law on corruption in Hong Kong, and the extent to which it differs from UK law;
(ii) the independent anti-corruption Commission, its constitution, terms of reference and method of operating.
We were also intrigued by the suggestion in Bonavia's article that in addition to investigating cases the independent commission is charged with the investigation of laws and bureaucratic procedures which are conducive to corruption, and would like to know how this is meant to work.
It would be very useful if you could let us have a note on these matters in the next month or two. I think it is unlikely that the Commission will want formal publishable evidence in this area, and it will be quite sufficient at this stage to let us have a background note for the information of the Commissioners alone.
Yours sincerely,
Z.A. Obam ават
F A OSBORN
ENC