EXTRACT FROM "MIDWEEK" 16.1.75:
-10-
MANGOLD:
Brian Slevin has only been Commissioner of the Hong Kong Police since January 1973. What does he feel about the involvement of some of his men in illegal gambling pay-offs?
SLEVIN:
Well I think there have been occasions when one has been conscious of there being an element of tension and where we found this to be the case well then the people concerned have been dealt with.
MANGOLD:
To what extent to you think again that corrupt officers have played a part in sponsoring gambling?
SLEVIN:
there are
Well I mean I think that if/people in the field who are that way inclined and they've cast
so to speak a blind eye then clearly it obviously helps the thing to carry on.
MANGOLD:
But, despite the Commissioner's intentions, considerable police energy can still be expended in upholding Hong Kong's archaic gambling laws. Swotting flies instead of shooting tigers. Detective Chief-Inspector Ted Perkins, whose home was once in the Cotswolds, now covers the sweaty streets of Kowloon. His assignment to-day is to take charge of a gambling bust, not of a huge casino but at a small tea house where some market workers are having a
little flutter on the horses. His Chinese under-cover detectives have gone in first to establish the law is being broken and are already taking statements when Perkins arrives. (BACKGROUND) Perkins works for the General Investigation Office, an elite CID unit unattached to any one Hong Kong police division. He doesn't know if this tea house is paying off or not. (BACKGROUND IN TEA HOUSE)
PERKINS:
What is that?
This is the...the sort of...the table where all the money is collected, this is the man who is controlling all the gambling.
MANGOLD:
Which is the man controlling...?
PERKINS:
This one here. This is a detective...this is a WPC..........
MANGOLD:
PERKINS:
who is that woman there?
Well I presume she is connected with him somehow, the way she is sitting there. All these people...these are the people who come up herefor the purpose of making bets you see.
MANGOLD:
...who are you going to arrest in here.
(EVERYBODY) Everybody..
PERKINS:
...with the possible exception of the restaurant or
***
the
cafe staff...
MANGOLD: very much.
PERKINS: BBH
Yes, and how much money is involved? It doesn't look like Is it a lot?
I don't know....probably...probably a few hundred dollars.