TNAG-1101-FCO40-1351-Legislation-on-homosexuality-in-Hong-Kong-including--Report--1981 — Page 451

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of its eff ts on smaller fish, was not my fault. I objected to this approach

from the outset.

So John MacLennan was reinstated in December 1978, and as far as I knew

the only punishment he received was to remove him from his friends at the

magistracy, and make it clear that he was considered disloyal to the force. He

expected trouble. But no one could have foreseen how he would become the sole

target in the police.

Nothing more was heard of John, to my knowledge, until October 1979,

almost a year later. I did know that action against homosexuals had been stepped

up after the conviction of a lawyer on homosexual charges. This lawyer had no doubt been singled out because of his outspoken criticism of police beatings

and frame-ups, and his arrest shook the homosexual community. He pleaded guilty

to the charges, but made up his mind to blow up the system that allowed Senior

Government men to use boys procured by triads while small fry were selected for charging. Indeed he considered that he had been victimised because he did not

patronise the triad trade in boys, but made his own boy-friends.

The lawyer's evidence was so damning that action had to be taken on the trade in boys, though this trade had long been known to police who had ignored or even collaborated with ft; up to this point and even afterwards.

..

I have

a record of some of the names this lawyer reported in a petition to the Governor, but John MacLennan's name was not on it. I have since talked to

many homosexuals, but without exception they have remarked, "He was not known

to us."

If he was a homosexual, he was exceedingly discreet, and there is simply no reason why he should have been targeted.

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So the police had to step up action, and it seems clear that they chose their targets carefully, avoiding the more senior officials. None of the eventual targets were, so far as I am aware, on the list submitted to the Governor, because the convicted lawyer had named mainly very senior officials. It later transpired that the Attorney-General had given instruction in the subsequent anti-homosexual operation which was codenamed "Rockcorry", that 'In deciding whether or not to pursue them (leads pointing at senior members of the Government service), such cases must be considered on an in dividual basis, bearing in mind the position of the suspect in Government and all other circumstan-

This provision led to the instructions of the Attorney-General being referred to as the "Charter of Discrimination", by a lawyer who does not mince his words;

Meanwhile the Special Investigation Unit (hereafter referred to as SIU)

ces."

1979

got busy on files and investigations of named homosexuals. Among those on the list given to the Governor was a Senior Inspector of Police. He was interviewed by the SIU and told that he was known to be a homosexual, but no action would be taken against him if he would cooperate and supply them with evidence. This Inspector phoned me in October/and said that he had agreed to cooperate, only if the information they required concerned the procuring of young underagė boys, or blackmail, or triad activity involved in the procurement of boys. He was not prepared to report on consenting adults. But as he explained to me, the SIU were not satisfied with his performance and began to put pressure on him.