TNAG-0076-FCO40-112-Retirement-of-the-Commissioner-of-Police-1967 — Page 30

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Mr. Hall

I have had several meetings with Mr. Tyrer in the

past three weeks. He has throughout shown some bewilderment

about the turn of events that led to his departure from

Hong Kong and has clearly been undecided what to do about it. Today he saw me, at his own request, to discuss his position.

2.

Mr. Tyrer's case is that he had every reason to believe,

until the Acting Governor suddenly asked to see him and

called for his voluntary retirement, that he was playing

his part in the implementation of agreed policy to the

satisfaction of all. The imputation that the Force lacked

drive under his leadership he counters by saying that this

was inherent in the policy of avoiding provocation: the

Police were in this situation reacting to the moves of the

local Communists and not taking the initiative in this

confrontation. He claims that plans to take the initiative (e.g. the raids on Communist premises which were put into operation a few days after his departure) were prepared

while the Force was under his command and awaited only the

policy decision to be put into effect.

3. He is clearly reluctant to let his case go by default.

He even implied that, in his view, it would not be impossible

for him to return to Hong Kong as Commissioner, mentioning

that he had received widespread indications of sympathy and

support from within the Force. But, for reasons mentioned

later, I do not think he seriously considers that reinstate-

ment is a practicable objective for him.

4. I prefaced my remarks by telling him that any views

that I could express on his situation must be taken as

personal, that I was not qualified to speak with authority

on matters which were for the most part the concern of

experts in "establishment" questions. As I saw it, however,

there was no halfway house between accepting the position he was now in (of having been allowed to retire voluntarily on medical grounds) and putting the Hong Kong Government in a

position of having to initiate proceedings for his compulsory retirement by withdrawing his notice to retire voluntarily. In the latter case, he would have an

opportunity to make his representations against the proposed

compulsory retirement; this procedure was, however, far from

being the same thing as a full-scale enquiry.

/5. It was

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