TNAG-0409-FCO40-455-Allegations-of-bribery-and-corruption-in-the-Hong-Kong-polic-1973 — Page 46

Amat Please-

CONFIDENTIAL

Mr Guest

Guert

CORRUPTION IN HONG KONG:

for leaping about

-ialus.

BLAIR-KERR REPORT

A.R

(259)

1956

FLAG B

233

FLAG

246

1. The comments in FCO telegram to Hong Kong no 1000 were

agreed with me before despatch and I thus concur in Mr Stuart's

minute of 15 October.

2. It is now apparent from Hong Kong telegram no 1178 that,

except on the question of the amendment of the Fugitive Offenders

Act and on the establishment of the independent commission, the

Governor proposes only to endorse the objectives of the Blair-

Kerr recommendations and to say that they will have to be looked

at very carefully indeed. He does not propose to announce the

Government's other proposals until 14 or 15 November and this

gives us a little more time to consider Hong Kong's counter-

proposals on some of the issues covered in the enclosure to Mr

Stuart's minute.

3. It would however be useful to know whether Mr Royle accepts

that we are right in going along with Hong Kong on the extension

of Section 10 of the Bribery Ordinance, to provide that an

accused could be convicted for failing to provide adequate

explanation of property held not only by himself but by his

near relatives. This extension of the burden of proof which

already falls on the accused under Section 10 could well be

criticised here and could thus lead to political difficulty in

Parliament. The answer to criticism would have to be that we

had already accepted that in the particular circumstances of

Hong Kong the only effective way of catching the corrupt is by

requiring an explanation of unusual and unexplained financial

/resources

CONFIDENTIAL