Wednesday, October 17, 1973
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"The requirement of double criminality is hard to understand in
the case of a dependent territory such as Hong Kong," he said. But he felt
sure that it was not the British government's intention in the Fugitive Offenders
Act to frustrate the intention of laws approved by Her Majesty's Government
in Hong Kong.
"I have represented to the Secretary of State the strong feelings
on this subject here. This of course is not the only way to bring back Godber
for trial. It remains for only one man to come forward and give conclusive
evidence of a corrupt transaction," Sir Murray stressed.
The Governor also noted with concern that corruption had done much
to denigrate Hong Kong in the eyes of the world.
However, the problem of corruption was not confined to Hong Kong alone.
"We know of many cities and countries much worse and many no better in
Europe, America and Asia, and which have not known the pressures under which
we here have existed," he said.
In Hong Kong, he pointed out, both reports of the Commission of
Inquiry into the Godber case had been published in full because "the public
had a right to low.
But he wondered what the result would be if many governments, whether
national or municipal, opened their most confidential files to impartial and
expert scrutiny and published the results.
This the Hong Kong government had done because it realised that
the only way to stop people calling Hong Kong corrupt was to eradicate corruption
from our society. "This we are determined to do," Sir Murray said.
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