TNAG-0407-FCO40-453-Allegations-of-bribery-and-corruption-in-the-Hong-Kong-polic-1973 — Page 5

Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1

United Nations Youth & Student

Association

93 Albert Embankment

London

SE1 7TX

Telephone 01-

Your reference

Our reference

HKK 14/17

Date

28 August 1973

160

1611

file

Dev M. Alexander

RA

I have been asked to reply to your letter of 30 July addressed to the Prime Minister about the case of Mr Godber.

We are also very concerned about this case, and the Governor of Hong Kong shares this concern. As you know, the Governor of Hong Kong has appointed a judge to investigate Mr Godber's departure from Hong Kong and also to look into the effectiveness of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance. The first part of the Commission's report has been published. The difficulty was that the Hong Kong Government were obliged, by the lack of other evidence, to proceed under Section 10 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance. This made it an offence for a public servant to be in possession of pecuniary resources disproportionate to his official emoluments, unless he could offer a satisfactory explanation. Mr Godber had to be given time to provide this explanation and in that time he left Hong Kong.

The problem now is that there is no similar offence under United Kingdom law. Under the United Kingdom Fugitive Offenders Act, a person may not be returned from Britain unless the facts on which the application for return are based, would also have constituted an offence under UK law. The Hong Kong Government are acting vigorously to try to find evidence on which such an application could be based (for example evidence of actual corruption) but so far unfortunately without result.

The Governor of Hong Kong is also determined to eliminate any corruption that exists in the Hong Kong Police Force and in this he has the full support of the Secretary of State.

Your sincerely

And Sh

A C Stuart

Hong Kong and Indian Ocean Department

pa

Prk 319