was a separate issue, He was well aware of Hong
Kong's anxieties, especially over MSP.
But the
Governor and Financial Secretary had been doing an
excellent job in keeping us informed of Hong Kongi,
Within the inevitable constraints
difficulties.
upon us, we would certainly do our best to help the
colony. Mr Woo agreed that it would be best to await
the outcome of the talks between the Governor and
the Treasury, and those in Nairobi and Dar-es-Saálăm.
But members of Exco and Kegco were very concerned
about the losses which Hong Kong had incurred through
and the guarantee to the banks
the floating of the pound; they amounted to nearly
HK Ø 1,000 million. Mr Royle pointed out that,
dreem
S
if Hong Kong had held US rather than sterling
which was the only practical alternative their losses
would have been even worse. And at least they had
had the benefit of high interest rates in London.
CORRUPTION
4.
Mr Woo said that corruption was always present
in Hong Kong. It was a relic of the Japanese
occupation, In the colony, a licence had to be
obtained for many activities, and anyone concerned
with issuing a licence was likely to look for a
bribe. Police corruption was the worst. For example,
if a taxi driver was charged for obstruction, he
would rather pay a bribe to a policeman than have to
take a whole day off work to attend court. It would
be better if the Anti-Corruption Office could be made
a separate department, away from the police.
Mr Royle said that he had discussed all this with
the Governor, who had some very good new ideas.
als
He thought his proposed aetion should go a long way
to meet the problem. The case of Mr Godber was a
/particularly
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