TNAG-0405-FCO40-451-Allegations-of-bribery-and-corruption-in-the-Hong-Kong-polic-1973 — Page 148

Telephone: 01-940 9214

20 Bishops Close Ham Common Richmond Surrey.

1 April 1973

Mr Anthony Royle MP

Under Secretary of State

Foreign and Commonwealth Office London S.W.1.

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Dear Mr Royle

Corruption in Hongkong, B.C.C.

I thank you for your invitation to discuss with you the problem of corruption in Hongkong and confirm that I will call at your office at noon on Thursday 5th April.

So that the meeting may be fully constructive I here outline matters I feel it would be useful to discuss and suggest that the summary of my experiences and the questions of projection contained therein, published last Wednesday in the CHINA MAIL (photostat copy here enclosed), might be a useful starting point. If there are any specific matters you would like to discuss or documents you would like to have sight of, perhaps you. would let me know before our meeting?

My purpose as ever is to indicate to the Home Government that an externally-appointed commission of inquiry must be the initial answer to the problem of organised graft in the Colony. There can be no confidence in inquiries conducted by the local government.

The course of my own experiences shows precisely why this is the case. From 1962 I set out to disprove two propositions made to me by experienced police officers in Hongkong, the first by an inspector, the second by a chief inspector. The first was that officers who opposed corruption would be falsely accused or have their livelihoods taken from them on false grounds. The second was that where officers made complaints that might not be brought to a just conclusion, they might appeal to whom they liked, to the Secretary of State, Parliament or the Queen, because in the end it

..OVER/