4
have anything to do with it have the opportunity to get away, before any police
action is taken. Those who stay in a dangerous mob must expect to be treated
as active participants.
Paragraph 22.
Subsection (2) of sections 20, 21 and 22 has been
inserted so that a person may be convicted of offences under these actions
which all depend on the accused having "taken part in a riot",) even if he
has not been convicted of riot. Without these subsections, it might be
necessary to charge and convict a man of riot also thus increasing the number
of counts and convictions.
Paragraphs 23-26. This section follows the Forcible Entry Act, 1381,
and common law, whereby it is no defence to a person who forcibly enters on
land in the possession of another that he was entitled to possession or had a legal right of entry. The 1381 Act refers to a "multitude" of people, and
"an unusual number" was substituted for it. Both are indefinite, but the
latter is perhaps less so.
I agree that "agent" would be an improvement on "bailiff" and that
some clarification is desirable of the phrase "premises of his own".
Paragraph 27 This section is based on the Forcible Entry Act, 1429
and the common law, whereby it is an offence to hold possession of lands by
force whether the possession was lawful in origin or not.
Paragraphs 28 and 29. Violence in public is likely to breed violence
and should be strongly discouraged. To avoid the difficulty referred in
paragraph 29, however, the word "unlawful" could be added before "fight" in
section 25.
Paragraph 30. I agree with the comments on this section and with
the amendment proposed.
Paragraphs 31-32. Section 27 is designed to deal with acts which
cause a person to be apprehensive for the safety of himself or his family or
property. The experience of 1967 was that intimidation was a grave danger
to the ordinary citizen, particularly to the workers in various utilities and semi-utilities. It is necessary, I am afraid, to have a full provision to
deal with this.
However, on reconsideration, I believe that the law already contains
adequate provision for dealing with this kind of conduct in section 47 of the
Trade Union Registration Ordinance, with some modification. I therefore
propose that section 27 should be repealed and section 47 put in its place.
(Section 47 is based upon section 7 of the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1873).
Paragraphs 33-35. An unlawful assembly in sections 28 to 30 is