Smuggling and the Demon Dollar
A community as responsive to challenge
as Hong Kong's could hardly let
this pass, and before long much ingenuity was being devoted to
circumventing the restrictions. Smuggling
became a major industry which
was to continue until the end of both war and embargo, and which very
quickly revealed the inadequacies of the Marine Police fleet. Its vessels
were all right for patrolling the coasts, `showing the flag' to isolated
communities and keeping a fishing fleet mostly composed of sailing junks
in order. But they were slow, and in some cases feeling their age. Also
they had no radar and only basic communications; sufficient for routine
messages but of little use in combined operations.
There was also another problem: the ambivalent attitude of the
authorities towards the embargo itself. On the one hand the government
must (and did) support the UN
effort against communist aggression. But on
the other was the very real fact that total success in the enforcement of
the embargo could hurt Hong Kong badly,
for apart from the threat to its
trade the influx from China
had brought about a 20% increase in
population within the previous two years (over half a million
people).
The dilemma that was to face the Marine Police appeared soon after the
declaration of the embargo,
when one night Inspector Tony Rose captured a
junk deep-laden with embargoed goods. He brought it back into harbour and
requested instructions, and when
Superintendent Roy Turner reported the
case he found himself summoned before someone very senior indeed. Here it
was put to him gently that a `blind eye' could reasonably be turned to
some offences. He did not agree:
"...my reaction to the person forwarding the reasons why the
law should not be rigidly enforced was
to request [his] instructions
in writing for me to relay to those under my command; pointing out
that if they were to wink an eye at what was going on in the course
of their duties then one must expect corruption to become
widespread." [R. V. F. Turner:
Personal reminiscences.]
Roy Turner's fears were well based,
as although the written instructions
were obviously not forthcoming, it did not take long for some officers to
work out the government attitude and what it could mean to them for
themselves. However the corruption that developed, although it was indeed
widespread during this period, was by no means all-pervasive and was
mainly opportunist: only in one or two areas was it actually syndicated.
Certainly the large cruising launches were rarely, if ever, involved; and
even in areas where smuggling was rife individual launch commanders who
wished to take no part came under little pressure to do so. Many of the
launch commanders were young and idealistic, and more than one of them
made himself unpopular by transmitting false positions and popping up
unexpectedly to seize smuggling vessels that had `evaded' the launches
that should have caught them.
Sometimes launch commanders came under different kinds of pressure.
Once, by letting it be known that he would be patrolling somewhere other
than he actually intended,
Sub-Inspector Mike Illingworth arrested a
modern, exceedingly well-equipped tug carrying a very valuable cargo of
embargoed goods (valued at over HK$2,000,000 [£125,000 or
US$345,000 at 1951 rates.]). This led to some interesting
consequences:
"In those days every smuggling case needed three separate files
because of a successful legal appeal that had been made:
- The smugglers to court;
- Cargo confiscation by court; and
- Vessel confiscation by court.
In this case, an approach was made to me
actually on the court steps by the very clever lawyer who had been
hired to defend the smugglers. I called
Roy Turner, told him of the
approach, and asked him to call the Court Chief Inspector so that I
could conduct the prosecution myself (I didn't know who else might
have been `got at'). I then went to the magistrate's office and told
him of the approach. He just laughed and said that he had just
received a call offering him money on the same case. He said to just
carry on into court. Then, when he formally entered the court, he
announced that he was transferring the case to another
magistrate."
This turned out to be a young Chinese magistrate who was later to become
a famous legal figure in Hong Kong.
Mike Illingworth continues:
"As the case proceeded, the defending counsel was in the middle of
a long spiel when [the magistrate]
leaned forward and said: `By the
way Mr -, if I find your client guilty, can I confiscate the
vessel and cargo at the same time?' The counsel said: `Well your
Worship, it appears you've already made up your mind!'
To which [the magistrate] said: `Oh yes, I have! I have!
but please do go on!'"
