Hong Kong - The British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, said yesterday the Conservatives should help drug addicts with a reported $1 million donation from a Hong Kong fugitive wanted on drug charges. Mr Cook, speaking in Hong Kong, said the Tories should not keep the money if the report about the donation from a prominent Hong Kong business family was true. The Ma family, which controls the Hong Kong-based Oriental Press Group, revealed the 1994 donation in an article in the Chinese-language Oriental Daily News.
The newspaper said the money was handed over in July 1994, to ease the way for Ma to return to Hong Kong from Taiwan where he fled to escape drug charges.