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Flag B
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Mr David Mr Mon
Mr Stewart
22/8
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Reference
DH to issue
PETITION TO HM THE QUEEN THOMAS FM TUNG
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1. Over the past two weeks five copies of a petition to The Queen have been received. Flag A may, or may not, be the top сору. The other copies, addressed to various Ministers, were forwarded to this department for answer. Attached to the petition are two affidavits.
2.
The petitioner is a retired education officer from Hong Kong, Thomas F M Tung, who is currently living in New York. Mr Tung's petitioning dates back at least to 1973 when he sent a petition to the Prime Minister and another via the Governor to the Secretary of State.
3. Mr Fung complains that he was wrongly convicted on a charge of evading payment of a twenty cent bus fare. He alleges that the magistrate in charge of the hearing was corrupt and attempted to extort money from him. According to Mr Tung this incident happened some eighteen years ago.
4.
In response to Tung's petition in 1973 the allegations were investigated by Mr Kidd, then Deputy Colonial Secretary in Hong Kong. Mr Kidd reported that no record of the case could be traced in either police or court records. A submission to Mr Wilford recommended that a reply be sent to Mr Tung stating that, after careful consideration, the Secretary of State was not able to intervene in Mr Tung's case. Nevertheless, Mr Tung was assured that, with no record of a conviction or charge against him, his reputation and standing were untarnished. This was duly sent to Mr Tung from Hong Kong on 23 July 1973.
5. This year Mr Tung wrote to the Secretary of State on 12 April from New York repeating his allegations. Further enquiries in Hong Kong revealed that the magistrate to whom Mr Tung referred retired in 1970 and that Mr Tung has regularly launched complaints on a variety of matters with the Government Secretariat.
6. According to Mependent Territories departmental practice
Part 2, Chapter 3, Para 8a, British subjects have the right to petition HM The Queen. The department concerned is then obliged to submit the petition with a recommendation from the Secretary of State on the action to be taken. (However, subsequent petitions need not be submitted unless new facts on the case have emerged).
7. Without wishing to restrict the rights to petition of a British subject, it would appear that Mr Tung has not brought new evidence to light. Furthermore there seems to be little more we can do to satisfy him in his persistent appeal for help in clearing his reputation apart from reiterating the assurance
/previously
CODE 18-77
$5 10/76
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