7/0/71.
SUNDAY TIMES
Caration St. 50. 44% 67
USA.
82 207.
54.
H.K. (Dgbit) 188 213. 31
. 687.
4.
Nectual.
UK A
21. 500.
Bex H 130. 000
Act: $15.8 28.
£ 2000 4,36,000 ky, voo £2,250.
21.500.
7.000
2.000
£101,000
£101,000 list: one of a mass of papers found in the flat of Pe" Although he was unaware of
Hong Kong-and pinned a medal on Chief Supt Godber.
AT THE time when Chief Supt Godber's unexplained wealth first came to light, he was second in command of Kowloon police dis- trict, a densely overcrowded area on the mainland part of the Colony. About half 91 Hong Kong's four million inhabitants lived on his "patch" and he controlled more than 3,000 policemen.
The Kowloon district includes docks. the crumbling over- crowded tenements of the Yau Ma Tei area and the infamous Walled City--which is neither walled nor a city, but a six-acre pest hole of slums, brothels and drug dens where 20,000 people subsist.
In contrast, other parts of
Kowloon have some of the most expensive restaurants and bar clubs in the Colony. The side streets are lined with "girlie bars." so-called music parlours and massage clinics where prosti- tutica, although illegal, flourishes openly.
Most of Hong Kong's prosti tutes ply their trade in Kowloon. They operate with apparent im punity. Five years ago it was estimated that there were 10,000. Today there are 25,000.
In 1972, the Hong Kong police prosecuted more than 56.000 people for prostitution and gam bling but the organisers are rarely touched and the twin
trades thrive.
Kowloon is also the heart of the drug trade. Besides their export business, the traffickers have a massive home market there are at least 80,000 and perhaps as many as 300,000 heroin addicts in Hong Kong.
It is impossible to estimate the revenue from drugs, prostitution
and gambling, but with so much money at stake it is certain that very substantial bribes are offered to the police to buy
protection."
11
the inquiry into his affairs, God- her was becoming increasingly restless, and on May 11 he made a formal request that his retire- ment date should be advanced to It is also certain that the the end of June. It was rejected. increase in vice has gone hand-
Seven days later, Godber was in-hand with a startling rise in
transferred from Kowloon to violent crime. Since 1969, the
police headquarters where, he number of violent crimes in the
was told, his experience was Colony has more than doubled,
nceded for a Fight Violent to 10,000 a year.
Crime Nearly two-
campaign. thirds of these were committed in Kowloon.
PETER
FITZROY GODBER, aged 51, joined the Hong Kong police in 1952 and rose rapidly from the rank of probationary Sub-Inspector to Superintendent. He was a tough, able cop, a
*
man's man and during the Communist riots of 1967 in the Colony he gained a reputation for courage in facing the street mobs.
In 1969, he was promoted to Chief Superintendent and a year later was awarded the Colonial Prlice Medal for Distinguished Service. The next step up would have been to Assistant Commis- this year he asked for early re sioner-but at the beginning of tirement. The Commissioner of Police, Charles Sutcliffe, granted his request, reluctantly.
Sutcliffe did not want to lose his motives for keeping Godber a good officer, but late in April
told by an informant that the in Hong Kong changed. He wat
ing large sums of money abroad. Chief Superintendent was send.
of the 12,000-strong force in Since he was appointed head April 1969, Sutcliffe has earned determined to smash tam woo- a reputation as the man most
police corruption-and at the first suspicion that Godber had been taking bribes he took personal
Detectives from his Anti-Corrup- charge of the investigation.
tion Office, ared with warrants issued by the Colony's Attorney General, visited all of Hong Kong's 487 banks to discover the extent of Godber's wealth.
In their joint account at the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, Mr and Mrs Godber had deposited more than £46,000; another £14,000 bad recently been seut abroad by Godber to bank accounts in Singapore and Canada. It soon become apparent that in the last five years the Chief Superintendent had some- how been able to bank more money than he had earned as a policeman in lus entire 21-year
career.
31
BY JUNE 4, the police estimate of Godber's wealth had grown to £80,000, and they were ready to confront him. That morning, the unsuspecting Chief Super- intendent went to the daily con ference where he was handed a letter from the acting Attorney General, John Hobley. Godber read it and fainted.
The reason for this could have been that in 1971, the Hong Kong authorities had passed an anti- bribery law which, by British standards, was a draconian piece of legislation, but which reflected the extent of Hongkong's corrup tion problem. Any policeman or civil servant living beyond his salary, or with too large a bank balance, can be forced to explain money. Failure to do so within a in writing how he obtained the
set time-usually seven days-is an offence.
The letter told Godber he had a week to explain his wealth. It also said that the police had warrants search his flat and his car. In the boot of the car were found three loose-leaf folders which contained the addresses of brothels and girlie joints throughout Hong Kong.
"
But it was in Godber's flat in Block A of Government Quarters in Caldecott Road that the detec tives made their most revealing find. In a built-in wardrobe in the main bedroom were stored a mass of documents which showed that Godber, who appeared to live so frugally, was, in Hong Kong dollar terms, a multi- millionaire. (There are roughly 14 HK dollars to the pound ster- ling.)
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