TNAG-0489-FCO40-554-Allegations-of-bribery-and-corruption-in-Hong-Kong-police-an-1974 — Page 133

LatioN AND CU ZMUNWEALTHICS!

25 JAN:274

ALLOCATIONS SECTION

CONFIDENTIAL

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY No. 51

2 5 JAN1974

4KX14/3

Rt. Hon. Sir Alec Douglas-Home,

HK

19

Hong Kong

21st Jan., 1974.

The Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs, Great Britain.

Sir,

LABT

REF.

NEXT

REF.

FIL

Suspected Maladministration of Justice by

the Royal Hong Kong Police Force: suspected

Concealment of Murder Case

Enclosed herewith is a piece of news about the murder case of a girl, contained in the local hewspaper TSAO PAO dated 2.1.74. The news said,"

At 10 O'clock yesterday morning, at the beach near a textile factory at Tin Kau, the body of a'mini-girl', aged around 20, was found hidden among the rocks. Her hands were tied at the back. She had wounds on her face. After police investigation, she was suspected to have been murdered and cast there or pushed down to the sea and floated there.

1

My Dear Secretary of State, you can see from the above lines and the original Chinese characters on the Chinese newspaper (the important words on which have been marked with a black felt-pen) that there is prima facie or even conclusive evidence of a girl having been murdered. But the Roayl H.K. Police first announced it as a suicideccase, and then corrected the announcement as a murder case, but finally came to the conclusive announcement of a suicide case.

My Dear Secretary of State, before I put forward my grudge on behalf of justice and the dead girl, I wish to draw your attention to one question, viz. "Is it possible for a person to tie up one's own hands without the assistance of anyone, especially at the back, and commit suicide without drawing the attention of passers-by while he is walking towards his intended place of suicide?"

To a dead man, one can surely say that he has committed suicide even if he has been robbed and killed. But to the people of Hong Kong, who have five million pairs of eyes to see what the British Government is doing on their land, would an announcement like the above-mentioned be convincing? Here is a case with at least prima facie evidence of murder and the police has made such a contradictary announcement before five million people. If the case is not clarified, how would the heart of the fove million people feel? Indeed, since thebhappening, much has been rumoured about this case in Hong Kong.