XN000022-1973-10-17 — Page 69

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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