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unenforcible laws, e.g. on hawkers.
Mr Crane was questioned, in
this context, about levels of police pay. He thought they were adequate at senior levels but had found that young expatriate officers often found it difficult to make ends meet. He had advised
against the recruitment of married expatriate Inspectors.
Commissioner of Police
5.
Mr Crane thought that the present Commissioner, Mr Slevin, had done a good job in many ways. But he was remote and unpopular: not a single police officer to whom Mr Crane had spoken had been prepared to speak in his favour. For this reason his initial view
had been that there would need to be an early change of Commissioner, but he now thought that it would be acceptable if
Mr Slevin remained until the beginning of 1979 when he would have held the post for five years. This was partly because he had strong doubts about the suitability of Mr Roy Henry, the present Deputy Commissioner, to succeed Mr Slevin. Mr Henry was competent and honest and would probably do an adequate job. But he lacked
the stature to guide the RHKPF through what was bound to be a
difficult period. Since there was no alternative candidate in Hong Kong, Mr Crane concluded that an outsider would have to be found. In view of Mr (formerly Major-General) Purdon's recent appointment to one of the Deputy Commissioner posts, the new Commissioner should be a policeman and he would need to be of senior Chief Constable rank. Mr Crane warned that it would not be
easy to find a suitable man; the wheels would need to be set in
motion soon.
Special Branch
6. Mr Crane emphasized that the Hong Kong Special Branch had been outside his terms of reference and he had had little contact
with it. But he thought that it would benefit from an inspection and had so told the Governor. It was agreed in discussion that any inspection would need to cover the organization of the Special Branch, its targeting and measures to protect it from infiltration. This pointed to an inspection by a team which would include members of the security service as well as the Metropolitan Police
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