30 April 1991
Mr Kevin Cahill BA MBCS
121 Clare Court
Judd Street
LONDON WC1H 9QR
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
London SW1 2AH
Dear Mr. Cahill,
ALLEGATION OF CORRUPTION IN THE FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
As the Deputy Under Secretary for Asia and the Americas I am replying to your letter of 30 March 1991 addressed to
Sir Arthur Watts forwarding a formal complaint of corruption in the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Please note that we have consulted
Sir Robin Butler about the similar letter of 13 March 1991 which you
sent to him. This letter takes account of his views. I have also
seen your letter of 28 January 1991 to Mrs Rita Fan which she passed
to the Hong Kong authorities, who in turn passed it to us.
It will not surprise you to know that I absolutely reject your
allegations that officials in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
have acted corruptly in handling papers relating to the case of
Lorrain Osman. We have looked at the documents enclosed with your
letter carefully and have also examined our files. We conclude that the papers and, particularly. the document described in your Affirmation as "Exhibit 1", a telegram from Hong Kong to the Foreign and Commonwealth office, do not afford the slightest support to your allegation of corrupt action.
I very much regret that you have so readily impugned the integrity of officials in this Office primarily on the basis of this document.
You will no doubt be aware that the Divisional Court considered this
and other documents on an application for discovery in the course of Mr Osman's fourth application for a writ of habeas corpus. In the Court's judgement of 20 June 1990, Lord Justice Leggat said: