Mr. Godden
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We are now reaching the end of our processing of the Hong Kong Public Order Ordinance. Replies are still outstanding from the Minister to the two letters from "Justice" which are flagged at G and H.
2.
In addition to the two letters from Justice, we have also received two petitions addressed to the Queen and asking for the Ordinance to be disallowed. (It should be noted that the memoranda from Justice, although highly critical of the Ordinance, specifically made it clear that they were not going so far as to ask for disallowance of the Ordinance.)
3.
The two memoranda received from Justice and the two petitions have been seen by the legal advisers. They saw no reason why the Ordinance should be disallowed and advised:
(i)
(ii)
4.
In the case of the petitions, that they should be forwarded to the Palace recommending that the Secretary of State's advice to Her Majesty should take the form that the reply to the petition, that "the petition has been laid before Her Majesty but the Secretary of State was unable to advise Her Majesty that the petition should be granted". We have now received a reply from the Palace accepting this advice.
In the case of the memoranda, a preliminary examination of them indicates that there are certain points which should be brought to the notice of the Governor. This is likely to take some time since a detailed scrutiny of the memoranda will be required. The legal advisers have, in fact, recently heard from the Attorney-General, Hong Kong, to the effect that they too have received a memorandum from the Hong Kong branch of "Justice" which contains certain justifiable criticisms of the Ordinance.
The stage has now been reached, therefore, when the Minister can reply to the two letters from Justice and a draft letter is attached behind this minute for this purpose. The draft has been cleared with Sir Arthur Grattan-Bellew.
5. As soon as the letter has issued, action will be taken to convey notification of non-disallowance of the Ordinance to Hong Kong; and thereafter to take up with the Governor those points in the memoranda from "Justice" which merit this action.
Mr Smulk
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(A.W. GAMINARA)
12 February 1968
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