TNAG-0106-FCO40-142-Proposals-to-appoint-an-Ombudsman-1969 — Page 91

OMBUDSMAN REPORT

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for our purposes is that it has been to a considerable extent idealised. in Chinese literature right up to, and including the present time; many novels and newspaper serial stories embody favourable inter- pretations of the history of the censorate.

Even in Chinese operas today the stress is often on the censor towards the end of the play coming in to unravel the complicated situations that have been caused by graft and corruption of the other parties in the play.

It is notable that both the Nationalist Government and the People's Republic have found it advisable to establish institutions to discharge functions broadly analogous to those of the traditional censorate. The Supervisory Yuan played such a part under the Nationalists, and under the People's Republic, the Committee of the People's Control was replaced under the 1954 Constitution by the Ministry of Supervision, itself to disappear in 1959, when its functions were divided between the local party committees at various levels and the People's Procuratorate, which is the main guardian of "socialist legality".

The main difference in fact between the censorial system of ancient China and the Ombudsman system is that the primary function of the Chinese system seems to have been the control of the bureaucracy in the direct interests of the Executive rather than the redress of grievances in the interests of the people as a whole. However, nothing of that difference appears in the censorial tradition and popular belief, and your Committee thinks in this case tradition is more important than the actual facts. So well implanted is the idea among the Chinese that even in Hong Kong today many Kaifong and clansmen associations, trade and welfare organisations still retain a supervisory committee consisting of comparatively senior members who have in the past served in various capacities in the same organi- sation but who are no longer in active service. The Ombudsman system when introduced can well be explained in terms of the censorial system without undue misunderstanding.