TNAG-0549-FCO40-644-Allegations-of-corruption-and-bribery-in-Hong-Kong-police-an-1975 — Page 64

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(5) Like all bad governments, torture is commonplace in Hong Kong. Torture in the police station and in prison camps must be stopped at once. Very often a person detained in the police statétion is beaten to death and the cops are scotfree for the killing. Such practices can't be perpetrated without the knowledge of the Commissioner of Police. In the prison camps too, the common practice is to beat the prisoners and to starve them (cruel, isn't it?) until they would ask their poor relatives outside the prison to pay the warden the blackmail money. Torturing and ill-treating detainees and prisoners should be stopped at once. Most of the ill-gotten money the police get is obtained by torturing people. In other words, the cops and wardens use torture as a source of income. Now the British law says nobody has the right to take the law into their own hands.

(6) Legalise pai-pahs (a Hong Kong term, meaning a private car running the taxi-cab business) and this will solve the traffic problems to some extent and also stop the graft. There are many pai-pahs and each car has to pay a duty of something around $120.00 per month to the cops' pocket by private arrangement, while those who refuse to pay such money are severely dealt with.

(7) The police collects the so-called dues from hawkers, and accord- ing to

$7,700,000 (£700,000) per month in Kowloon side alone, and if the Hongkong side is included, the amount would reach above £1,000,000 per month. Hawkers are only arrested because they have no money to pay their dues, which are collected by police plaincloth men daily.

(8) Other fields of corruption are Fire Brigade department, Public Works Department, Sanitary Department, Marine Department, Education Department, and government subsidized Charitable organizations.

Of all these points, we expect that points (1) and (5), i.e., the dismissal of the top police officials and prohibition of torture of all kind in police detention camps, concentration camps and in prison, should be carried oýt at once. And these two points ought to be easy to carry out.

Thanking you for your attention and action.

Yours faithfully,

Please don't ignore this letter because

signed it is/anonymous. Because we don't want to risk our lives. The police have guns, you know.

And for this letter they have certainly a good reason to use it.

co: His Excellency the Governor of Hong Kong.