TNAG-0411-FCO40-457-Allegations-of-bribery-and-corruption-in-the-Hong-Kong-polic-1973 — Page 37

elephone: London 940 9214

Mr Anthony Royle MP House of Commons Westminster London SW1A OAA

Rec. and Ack, 12/12/13. H.K.IO. Department for draft reply please

mr Royle. from

#колод.

20 Bishops Close Ham Common Richmond Surrey

7 December 1973

372

Dear Mr Royle

Thank you for your letter of 6th December and for inviting me to meet you at the Commons on 3rd December. I have written to Mrs Elliott advising her that you would welcome an opportunity to meet her during her forthcoming visit to London. I believe she will be arriving on 17th December and is to meet MPs at the Commons on 18th December but Mr James Johnson MP could probably tell you more about that. Thank you also for sending my letter to the Hongkong Press about the 1966 'Star Ferry' plot matter to the Governor.

*

While I feel that the new Anti-Corruption Commission is being constructed in perhaps the best way it can be to investigate Hongkong graft in the short term, it remains my view that that an externally-appointed judicial inquiry is the best way to examine the matter long term and in the interests of justice being done to people who have suffered in the past. In spite of the "brand new detergent" approach that has attended the appointment of Mr Jack Cater, and I intend no personal slight, the fact remains that there is in the minds of many people no confidence in any organ of the Hongkong Government, which the ACC certainly is. The secondment of policemen from the Hongkong Force to the ACC hardly indicates a change in substance, in the public mind and I believe there will be no public confidence in the ACC until it has secured the return of Godber. Godber's continuing absence from Hongkong provides a permanent cause of hostility and a risk to public order. The Hongkong Government's failure to deter organised graft by publicly bringing to trial officials and punishing them publicly for corruption instead employing Colonial Regulations to force resignations so that they leave the Colony with loot plus pension, and Godber's not being brought to justice, are I gather a source of much public irritation. I understand from Mrs Elliott that public feeling in Hongkong runs high on the Godber issue and I believe that in the ultimate interests of public order, particularly with regard to increasing student participation, that the ACC has a duty most instant to get Godber back. It would be most unfortunate if the brothelkeepers of Hongkong, through the policing system under which the tail wags the dog, were to achieve, by their failure as members of the public to offer evidence against Godber, destruction of life and property because socially-conscious young people demonstrating their disgust with the British Government have no other avenues in which to vent that feeling but Nathan Road and the streets of resettlement estates. The students, who have seen the law applied to themselves on matters which they have championed and regarded as right will not appreciate the legal niceties advanced, as they see it, to protect Godber who appears to have done wrong. The foreign domination aspect here will not be a constant factor encouraging hostility of which I would need to commenton.

OVER