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about corruption in a colony 10,000 miles away. From 1969, although I managed to interest a British television company in a one-off programme about the problem, no newspapers have followed it up. Godber's flight in June gave the British press a taste for this story; the Blair-Kerr 1st Report recording Godber's $4.3 million strengthened this interest and made frontpage headlines. News becomes fashionable with newspapers and at this very moment journalists representing British newspapers and TV companies are trying to inquire deeply into many aspects of the organised corruption conspiracy and maladministration in Hongkong. Before the end of October I believe we will see the Hongkong Government more fully exposed than it has ever been before. The media here have uncover- ed some quite disturbing matters which may serve to put the problem of police corruption into a far broader perspective. The links between the wider corruption conspiracy and British politics may soon be common knowledge here and in Hongkong. All of this is a far-cry from the situation in the early 1960s and in large measure we will owe it to Godber.
We must see Godber in the full perspective of the problem and acknowledge his true value. He has turned the world spotlight onto the corruption problem in Hongkong at a time when media interest is finally being attracted to, for example, world narcotics trafficking and Hongkong's role in it, an interest which is going to have a most critical impact before long.
If in the end we can have neither Godber's head nor, of more importance, what Godber's head contains, we should settle for his indirect contribution to the anti-corruption cause. I hope I do not sound too pessimistic about the extradition and I feel we will see Gobder returned. But I also, believe that the British Government needs more time if it is to find an effective legislative solution, and the Police Force needs more time too if it is to exhaust every possibility of finding effective evidence in Hongkong. If the Force finds that evidence and tries to use it we can be sure that Godber will fight vigorously in the British Courts to prevent the issue of an extradition order and therefore any case the Police present must be absolutely watertight otherwise Godber will wiggle away and there might be no other chance to catch him.
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How do we fit into all of this and what should our strategy be? Mrs Elliott recently sent me copies of the HKFS excellent 'Wanted' poster with that superb caricature of Godber. It was my intention to try to bersuade British newspapers to publish it, with the purpose of pressing the British Government to act. However, I then appreciated more the problems the FCO is facing and I decided that if Godber were to get from bur newspapers the impression that there is a strong pressure on the Government such that it might be forced to act against him, then he night from fear flee from the UK. So, I have not distributed this poster or tried to further excite newspaper interest in Godber. Some newspapers are in agreement with me. It is, of course, annoying that one has had to reach this decision not to project Godber in order to influence British public opinion but one has to accept the most relevant fact that Parliament does not reassemble until 16th October and not until then could retrospective legislation be introduced anyway.
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I have decided to mark-time for a couple of months on the issue of
odber although of course I continue to bribf newspapers on the wider Implications. Also influencing my decision is the knowledge that Sir Murray MacLehose has accepted that he is sitting on top of a most serious problem corruption, and that he has definitely decided to do something about it. This is a tremendous development and certainly a great advance from the dishonesty of former Governor Sir David Trench.
J
OVER/
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