TNAG-1042-FCO40-1292-Possible-Royal-Commission-on-Hong-Kong-and-its-future-House--1981 — Page 28

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

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CONFIDENTIAL

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11. The United Kingdom agreed at Geneva in 1979 to accept a further

10,000 refugees in addition to the 1,000 accepted earlier.

About

8,500 of these resettlement places have been filled. A team of

Home Office officials is due to leave for Hong Kong on 27 February

to complete selection for the quota.

However, the

12. There is considerable feeling in Hong Kong that an extension

of the United Kingdom quota will be necessary if the momentum of

the resettlement programme is to be maintained.

resettlement programme in the United Kingdom is facing practical

difficulties with regard to housing and employment. No decision

has yet been made on a further quota and the position will be

reviewed after the Secretary of State's visit to Hong Kong in March.

MACLENNAN AFFAIR

13. Police Inspector MacLennan was to have been arrested in

January 1980 on charges related to homosexual acts (all homosexual

activities are still illegal in Hong Kong). The arresting party

found MacLennan locked in his bedroom dead from five pistol wounds.

Despite overwhelming evidence that MacLennan had committed suicide,

the Coroner's Jury returned an open verdict. This fuelled rumours

that he had been murdered to protect senior government servants

who were also homosexuals.

14. Following increasing concern, both in the United Kingdom and

particularly in Hong Kong, about MacLennan's death, the Governor

set up a judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate the death

and the circumstances surrounding it. The Commission has not yet

finished its investigations. It would, therefore, be inappropriate

to comment on the case.

CONFIDENTIAL

/15.

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