TNAG-1101-FCO40-1351-Legislation-on-homosexuality-in-Hong-Kong-including--Report--1981 — Page 452

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he felt that his job was at stake, and that he was also liable to arrest on the same chaps that they were urging him to make against others. He was an unhappy rán and for some time I feared he might try to find a way out of his misery by suicide. He seemed nervous and depressed when he spoke to me. Finally, he continued, the SIU had named John MacLennan as their target, and the Chief Inspector claimed he was told that if he could not get real evidence against MacLennan, he must take boys to Maclennan's quarters and later use them as witnesses against him. This was the last straw. The Chief Inspector refused to take part in what he called

inciting a crime."

*

This Chief Inspector of Police did not seek my advice. He probably just wanted others to know about the case in advance, in case he should eventually find himself in the trouble that threatened him unless he cooperated. However, he made it clear that on principle he would not take part in staging a crime. He had sought legal advice. I personally suggested that he should report to the Attorney General, but he felt that the only outcome of such a step would be to find himself charged on his own admission of being a homosexual, I am sure now that he was right. Even a police inspector would not be believed in face of the pressures from higher quarters. Hong Kong is not ruled by right or principle but by pressures and promotions. I advised the Chief Inspector therefore at least to make a sworn statement about the whole affair so that he would have evidence should he in future face dismissal or court action. I later found that he had in fact informed several people who should have been good witnesses in his defence, but when the time came for him to be defended, the timid ones denied they knew anything, and the Hong Kong system banded together to prove the outspoken ones liars, or to tear their characters apart. This has always been the Colonial system in Hong Kong. You have to bend to the system, or be hammered to shreds. Justice and truth have no mart in our system.

Moreover,

The information given me by the Chief Inspector disturbed me greatly. I was not afraid for John MacLennan's sake. For one thing he had shown his willingness to fight out the case in court" to prove my innocence" as he had said in 1978. I had confidence that he could win any case against him. I knew that the Chief Inspector had not only refused to incite a crime against MacLennan, but that he could be a witness if anyone else did so. So I was not afraid on John's behalf. But I was worried about the Chief Inspector, who liked his job, was doing well at it but who seemed ready to go to pieces with the pressure. Morcover, the injustice of it all worried me, so much so that soon after our telephone conversation in October, I told my fears to friends and relatives during my visit to London. I mentioned it to a Member of the House of Lords, several Members of Parliament, and in my home in Newcastle.

I omitted names,

in order to keep faith with the persons involved.

On returning to Hong Kong, I was due to meet the Attorney-General on entirely different matters. He was fairly new to Hong Kong and was trying to brief himself by interviewing different kinds of people. He called me to his office on 20th December 1979, and asked me to talk to him about housing.

PA