Sir D Wats
Watson
Parliamentary Unit
CONFIDENTIAL
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DIE
PARLIAMENTARY QUESTION: MR JAMES JOHNSON MP
1.
Mr James Johnson MP has put down a Question for oral answer on 22 January, to ask the Secretary of State if he will make a statement concerning the extradition of Police Superintendent George Godber to Hong Kong and, in particular, the charge which is made against him. The question may not be reached, but we have been asked to prepare a draft reply and supplementaries.
2.
Mr Johnson may well ask supplementary questions about the general problem of corruption in the Colony. He may also ask for a Royal Commission to be appointed from the UK to investigate corruption in Hong Kong. Both of these points have been covered in the notes for supplementaries.
3.
The case of Mr Alan Ellis, mentioned in the draft supplementaries, concerns a former Inspector in the Royal Hong Kong Police. His probationary appointment was terminated in July 1963 on the grounds of temperamental unsuitability.
4.
It is also possible that Mr Johnson may refer to the case of ex-Superintendent Hunt, whose memoirs have recently been serialised in the Daily Express and who was featured prominently in a BBC Midweek programme on corruption in Hong Kong shown on Thursday 16 January. Mr
is to be a principal witness in the Godber trial. Since this case is sub judice, it would be improper to comment on Mr
s likely evidence.
5.
In answer to any supplementary questions about the success or failure of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, I recommend that the Minister should use Lord Goronwy-Roberts's words at his press conference in Hong Kong on 16 January, that the Commission was already showing "distinct success".
CONFIDENTIAL
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