criticisms of the situation in Hong Kong. He thought it only fair
at he should mention this to the Minister.
3.
The Hong Kong Bar consisted of forty members of whom five were Eurasians, approximately ten were European and the remainder were Chinese. Out of a total of twenty-eight Magistrates five were Chinese; local appointments did not, of course, carry fringe benefits. Out of a total of eight Supreme Court judges, none were Chinese, whilst one of the sight District Court judges was Chinese.
4.
Sir James McPetrie said that the small number of Chinese
Magistrates was not due to any lack of endeavour on the part of the Hong Kong Government. He considered that if the judges of the Supreme Court and the District Court were to be appointed entirely from the Bar of forty persons, it would be extremely difficult to maintain the ! necessary standard. He doubted the validity of the point about
preserving the appearance of impartiality but conceded that he did not know how the average Chinese litigant would look at the matter. In any case it could hardly apply to civil actions since the Crown was not usually involved on the civil side. The Minister of State said that an expatriate member of the service with no local connections might appear more impartial than an ex-member of the local Bar.
He was
doubtful whether expatriate members of the Hong Kong Bar were any more likely to be familiar with the Chinese way of life and thought than expatriate members of the service. Mr. de Basto disagreed.
5.
The Minister thought that it should be possible to devise an administrative arrangement whereby the Bar Association could put forward to the Governor or the Chief Justice the names of those persons of the Bar Association who might wish to be considered for appointment to the Supreme Court Bench. Sir James thought that to safeguard against the possibility of any leakage any such consultations would need to be ad hoc on each occasion and would have to be conducted on an informal
and personal basis. If the idea of making appointments to the Bench
from the Bar was to be considered, it would be natural to wish to
appoint the most able of those members. Whether such members would
regard the emoluments of a Supreme Court judge as sufficiently attractive to persuade them to forego their income at the Bar, was a
matter of some doubt. Mr. de Basto thought that if the fringe benefits such as free passages and children's allowances of Supreme Court judges were taken into account, then the respective emoluments of Bar and
Bench might well prove to be comparable.
6.
The prosecution of criminal cases to be conducted by members of
.....