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Mr. Carter.
Mr. de Basto, Chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association, has written identical letters to the Secretary of State and Lord Shepherd saying that he would like to discuss certain matters with each of them and asking if they would be willing to see him (presumably separately) during the first or second week in August.
2. Mr. de Basto's letters list five subjects which he would like to discuss. Four of these are purely legal matters whilst the fifth is a political matter that of unofficial appointments to the Legislative and Executive Councils.
3.
Three of the four legal matters have previously been raised by the Bar Association. They were included, together with other matters, in certain Resolutions for Legal Reform which the Bar Association produced in June, 1963. These Resolutions were addressed to a number of persons and bodies, including the Chief Justice of Hong Kong and the
Secretary of State. It took the Hong Kong Government nearly eighteen months to let us have their comments on the Resolutions: they finally did so, in November, 1964, by sending us a copy of a letter dated July 4 1964, addressed to the Bar Association by the Attorney-General, Hong Kong. The letter, which had been agreed in draft with the Chief Justice and with the heads of interested departments, commented in detail on each of the Resolutions.
4. At the end of November, 1964, Mr. (as he then was) McPetrie visited Hong Kong and discussed the Resolutions with the Attorney-General and (separately) with the Hong Kong Bar Association. In August, 1965, we sent the Governor our own comments on the Resolutions; on the letter sent by the Attorney-General to the Association and on certain other points which had been raised by the Bar Association in their discussion with Mr. McPetrie. We have no record of whether our views were passed on to the Bar Association: we left it to the Governor to decide whether the Association was in fact expecting a reply from the Secretary of State to their Resolutions.
5.
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The fourth legal point legislation generally in Hong Kong is a general one and has not, so far as I can trace, previously been raised.
6. Were it not for the fact that one of the matters which Mr. de Basto wants to discuss is a political matter, I would suggest that neither the Secretary of State nor Lord Shepherd should agree to see Mr. de Basto; but that he should be seen by a Legal Adviser. It so happens that Mr. Roberts, Attorney-General, Hong Kong, will be in this country at the end of this month and has an appointment to see Sir James McPetrie (about other matters) at 11 a.m. on 26 July. This will provide a useful opportunity for clarifying the position about the legal points which Mr. de Basto wishes to raise, in readiness for any meeting with the latter during the following ten days or so. It might even be possible to arrange a meeting with the Legal Adviser which would be attended both by Mr. de Basto and Mr. Roberts, if this were desired. But this would depend upon how
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