22
Wednesday, October 17, 1973
That has been the situation here, except that the Anti-Corruption
Branch has worked to the direction of a target committee largely civilian
in composition. Though fully aware of the disquiet in many circles about
corruption, and about the machinery we had here to deal with it, I wished
time to see what results the branch could produce under the new legislation.
The escape of Chief Superintendent Godber was a shocking experience
for all of us, extremely frustrating for the police who had worked so carefully
and so secretly to bring him to court. There was great public disquiet about
the circumstances of his escape, and this clearly called for an immediate
and searching enquiry by a man of the highest calibre and public stature. But
I thought that it was right to take this opportunity to charge the same man
with reporting also on the workings of our anti-corruption laws and the
machinery to enforce them, and thus provide an authoritative and dispassionate
view of our situation as a basis for action. This has been done, and I should
like to congratulate Sir Alastair Blair-Kerr on the thorough and forthright
way he has performed this considerable public service, with a minimum of
soft soap and a maximum of objectivity. Both his reports have been published
in full. The public had a right to know, but in any case when something
has gone wrong the air is usually soonest cleared by frank acknowledgement of
the facts.
After Godber's escape two things quickly became apparent. The
first was that suspicion of corruption on a more extensive scale was better-grounded
than I had personally realised. The second was that the men responsible for
investigating and prosecuting corruption felt that in spite of the new tooth
in the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, they still lacked the legal weapons
/and to