I later learned that no one had looked in the full length cupboard to see if that might be the case. Others rang to say that a door can easily be faked to appear locked. Murder was hard to imagine. But equally difficult was to believe it was suicide. Would a man cold-bloodedly ring up to ask for an early-morning call from
write sleep, get up, dress, sign for a gun from the armoury, go home, lock all doors, a note, turn out the lights in a very dark bedroom, and shoot himself five times, the first shot, according to experts, being the fatal one. One expert called by my-
self said that certainly the first shot could not have been the fatal one.
said it was.
Others
I knew I had to act quickly if I was to call for an investigation, and the quickest way was through the press. A few days after the grisly death I had done this, because one thing was certain, whether John MacLennan was murdered or whether he committed suicide, he was hounded to his death. I said so openly, and demanded
an inquiry. To my horror he was immediately cremated. The excuse for this was that the parents had requested cremation. That was not strictly true. For one thing, Jolm's parents had been told as instructed in the "suicide note", that
the death was an accident. They were given no details. They were also told that to take his body to Britain would be difficult as airlines did not like the job. John's parents are simple Scottish peasants, his father sick and nearly blind.
In good faith they consented to cremation, later to regret it when they learned that there were doubts about the manner of his death. Within days the couple heard from the press that his death was suicide, which they will never believe. The
Their son village where they live still considers suicide a sin against God. would never do that. Nor would they believe him to be a homosexual, another sin in their pure and simple code of ethics.
Once cremated, the MacLennan case was virtually closed, 'because any theories of murder or suicide are now based solely upon police photographs and reports. Only one young pathologist actually saw the body, and he said clearly at the inquest that it could have been suicide or homicide, which solved no problem as
this we all knew.
1
From the time I spoke out to the press until the opening of an inquiry
seven months later, the MacLennan case was a battle of words. The inquiry begun
later simply put it sub-judice and silenced public controversy.
Within a few days of speaking up on the case, the Attorney-General called me to his office. I was alone. He had with him as a witness one of his subordinates,
Whatever went on in that interview will always be my one word against their two, be- cause a Colonial subordinate in Hong Kong will always support his superior if he
wants to keep his job or earn his promotion.
On entering his office I sat facing the Attorney-General, with the law
officer on my left. After preliminary introductions, the Attorney-General told me that he wanted to show me something, on the condition that the details of what I read Would not appear in the press next day. I gave him my promise (and kept it) and he handed me some sheets of unheaded paper with typing on them. He said they were
reports made personally by the officer on my left. I assured him that if he had made the reports personally I would have no reason to doubt them. (I already had