ABSTRACT
In the 1940s, Pennefather-Evans had already highlighted the need for a Commercial Crime Unit but his recommendations produced meagre results. As with the Narcotics Bureau, the work of the Commercial Crime Unit often necessitated liaison with overseas forces to break up international syndicates of forgers and smugglers of currency, gold or goods between Europe and the Far East. Though Hong Kong was a small spot on a map of the world, the international nature of some its crime problems thus necessitated increasing specialisation and co-operation with overseas forces and other law enforcement agencies. The 1960s continued some of the ‘modernising’ tendencies of the 1950s, set out in Pennefather-Evans’s original blueprint for a post-war force. The 1966 and 1967 riots were to reinforce the view that Hong Kong needed a strong, well-resourced force. They also emphasised the need for officers to be loyal to the government.
