RECEIVED IN
ARCHIVES No. 63 -9FEB1968
HWA 14/34
ни
Reference...
41
Kr. Gaminara
Copan to Star A. Exaltan-Bettin
Hong Kong Public Order Ordinance
I received a telephone call this morning from Mr. Roberts, Attorney-General, Hong Kong, enquiring as to the position
I said that as regarding signification of non-disallowance.
we had received, in addition to the petition to The Queen from the Reform Club, lengthy criticisms of the Ordinance from Justice, we had felt it desirable to go through the latter to make sure that there was no justifiable criticism of a very serious nature before reaching a decision on disallowance. I thought that the present position was that we were satisfied about this, but that, in view of the petition, a formal submission to the Palace was necessary before non-disallowance could be signified.
2. Mr. Roberts said that he hoped that, if it were thought that some of Justice's criticisms were justified, that it was not intended to withhold signification of non-disallowance pending the making by Hong Kong of amendments to meet the criticisms. He said that this would be politically awkward in Hong Kong. I replied that I did not think that there was any intention to adopt this course.
3.
Mr. Roberts also said that the Hong Kong Government were examining criticisms made of the Ordinance by the Hong Kong branch of Justice, and indicated that he thought that some of the criticisms were well-founded. I said that it might be helpful to us to know whether the document they had received from the Hong Kong branch was the same as that which we had received via the London branch, and also to know if possible which of the criticisms they thought were well-founded and likely to be ones which they could meet. He said that he would let us have information about this.
It under down
(D. G. Gordon-Smith) 9th February, 1968
W
R. B
iniš
:
can
await return of file which is
Антит
with Sir Arthur Grattan-Bellew.
A 6.
9.2.