TNAG-0396-FCO40-442-Problem-of-increase-in-crime-in-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 71

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HONG KONG STANDARD.

29TH

MARCH 73

Beat crime

campaign

on the way

THE

Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, has set up a committee to launch a massive Fight Violent Crline Campaign, it was announced yesterday.

Mr Jack Cater, Secretary for Information, has been appointed chairman of the Committee.

Its duties: "To plan, organise and co-ordinate Government's and the community's efforts to help police in reducing violent crimes."

The committee includes members of the police, the Secretariat for Home Affairs, the New Territories Administration, the Information Service and the Colonial Secretariat.

Commenting on the announcement, Mr Cater sunl that his committee had already started to plan to fight crime, and in particular the campaign which is to start in June.

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"A vast amount of the ground work has already been done

Mr Donald Luddington's committee which was set up three and a half „months ago,” he said.

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"The report of that committee will form the basis for action by my newly formed group, and detailed proposals will be announced early in May," he said.

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Yesterday Mr Cåter felt K- meeting of the Lions Club that :| 8 the campaign is probably the **most difficult" Hongkong people ever faced.

"But assure you that Government has no doubt whatsoever that the people of Hongkong will be triumphant." Mr Cater said.

It was still too early to talk about the detalls of tho anti-crime campaign, Mr Cater said. But. certainly, the campaign will call for "massive effort" from both Government and the community.

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stressed that maintenance of law and order and prevention of crime are the prime responsibilities of any Government.

The public, he said, also has a vital part to play in helping the Government and the police.

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NARROW VIEW

Mr Cater said it would be a "naive and dangerously narrow view" if people think that crime is solely the responsibility of the police and the courts.

"The police and the courts deal mainly with the immediate peril of crime," Mr Cater said.

He suggested that, in the long run, 'we must reduce the causes of crime if we hope to reduce its occurrence."

"Since crime reflects the character of society, we must find out those qualities in our life which form the basic origins of crime," Mr Cater added.

He said he personally thought that Government had to "vastly improve the quality of life" in its effort to combat the origins of crime.

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