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reported it had so far been, my appreciation was that we could be on the very edge of a breakdown in law and order. It would only need a rumour that the Police were off the streets for the night for looting to start. Indeed it would be all too easy for the Police ring- leaders to tip off triads to start something so that they could put pressure on the Government.
11. When I asked what we could do to bring the situation under control, without the use of force, the answer of the Police was unanimous: an amensty coupled with something on ICAC procedures. Jack Cater agreed that an amnesty was the only answer and indeed had suggested to me earlier in the day that it was likely to be necessary.
12. There then ensued discussion of the terms of an amnesty and its date. The Attorney-General, on purely legal grounds, was strongly in favour of an amnesty as of current date. Cater, the Commissioner and myself were determined that whatever the legal implications, no amnesty could be given which included the ring-leaders or temporarily stopped ICAC. For my part I was also determined that if we made a concession it should be I would not such as to preclude further discussion.
negotiate with the mutineers. By implication this meant that the amnesty had to be sufficiently far reaching to detach the vast majority of the force from the hard core ring-leaders, but sufficiently restricted to leave out these and other men under ICAC investigation and
The date of ICAC's so keep ICAC very much in business. formation was considered but discounted because the great improvement in corrupt practice in the Police, particularly syndicatea corruption, has largely ended only during the last year or 18 months, and that date
It was thus would have left too many in the net. that the beginning of the current year was decided on together with exceptions which ensured that the ring- leaders and various other badly-wanted men were excluded. It left ICAC with an active caseload of several hundred.
13.
It was after 6 pm that we had reached this stage, and Sir Y K Kan joined us at my request. Earlier in the day he had taken the initiative in urging on Jack Cater that an amnesty was the only way out of the situation (and earlier in the week he had impressed on me that we were in a near-riot situation). But he was deeply shocked when confronted with the necessity for a climb-down by the
There was much Government of these proportions. discussion of alternatives and much of the ground was gone over again. But he finally agreed that there was literally
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