ENG-1975 — Page 27

8

A PERSONAL VIEW

rolling hills, green woods and the surviving thatched huts and crumbling colonial houses. The New Territories will become truly 'new' once more. There is excellent road connection with Kowloon and the wharves on the bay are being improved for fishermen, who can move into comfortable waterfront units and moor their junks in safer surroundings.

Michael Sandberg, Deputy Chairman of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, has been appointed chairman of the working group on industrial estates, which is progressively enlisting the active co-operation of local village leaders. When the Old Bank is interested, progress is assured in Hong Kong.

Breaking the Back of Corruption

'Corruption' was the word which embarrassed Hong Kong most on the world front last year. One does not need to be a counsel for the defence to argue that it was somewhat overplayed. Corruption has always been a way of life in Asia, and Old Hands who have lived in Tokyo, Manila, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Rangoon and Jakarta know how the old 'tea-money' tradition seeps into normal business and police operations--sometimes discreet and gentlemanly but always sought, offered and

accepted.

True, the depth and extent of police corruption initially uncovered in Hong Kong surprised even the cynics, but the situation is now in hand. The Independent Commis- sion Against Corruption has a dedicated leader, Jack Cater; and the operations branch, under John Prendergast's experienced command, had a strength of 450 by the end of 1975. There has been some 'liberal' criticism of the unprecedented powers of investigation accorded the ICAC, but most people support tough methods and the commission is steadily expanding its probes. Certainly the guilty sleep less easily now at night.

In the first annual report, Mr Cater, the Commissioner Against Corruption, predicts that 'the back of corruption will have been broken in two or three years'. A significant fact is that, while the commission had a ratio of only one prosecution for every 10 cases under investigation in 1974, the ratio in 1975 was one for every five. Also, the proportion of 'non-anonymous' complaints was only 15 per cent of the total in 1974, but 40 per cent by the middle of 1975. Eventually, the ICAC will have eight sub-offices, thereby encouraging prompt local complaints. The commission has been reinforced by the appointment of 50 British police officers.

Violent Crime

Violent crime in Hong Kong, as in most cities in the world, has risen in the past two years and there have been strong but vain popular demands for restoration of hanging for murder. In future when a death sentence is commuted for homicide 'without mitigating circumstances', the prisoner will be detained for as long as he lives-though this will be unsatisfactory because overwhelming Chinese tradition still demands a life for a life.

A Fight Violent Crime Campaign was launched in June 1973. At that time the strength of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force was 12,780; since then it has increased