23
From the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Rt Hon The Lord Goronwy-Roberts
Dear Anthony
London S.W.1
27 January 1975
REF.
(318)
(47
I told you in my letter of 19 December that we had forwarded to the Independent Commission Against Corruption, Hong Kong, the statement by your Constituent, Mr Alan Ellis of 20 Bishops Close, Ham Common, Richmond, which you sent to me under cover of your letter of 5 December. I have now received the Commissioner's comments.
Mr Ellis's statement contains only one allegation of corruption, which is his reference to two attempts by a room boy in 1962 to give him HK 8 500 allegedly on behalf of the Divisional Superintendent. As Hong Kong law stood at that time, there being no provision comparable to Section 3 of the present Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, approaches of this sort would not have constituted an offence of corruption. The only possible offence could have been a common law conspiracy, and to prove even this might be very difficult after such a long period of time.
The Commissioner intends to try and locate the room boy concerned: but since the only information about him is that his name is
this may not be an easy task. Even if he is located, there remains the possibility that he will not be prepared to confirm Mr Ellis's account.
It is perhaps unfortunate that Mr Ellis made no reference to the incidents he described in his statement until some 2 years after he left the Royal Hong Kong Police and that it is only now,
Sir Anthony Royle KCMG MP
House of Commons
SWI
/some
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