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Mr. Carter
A reply is required to the attached letter addressed to Lord Shepherd by Mr. Sargant, Secretary of the British Section of the International Commission of Jurists. The letter arrived during the Minister's absence abroad and an interim reply to it was sent on 27 October.
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So far as Hong Kong is concerned, the Governor had previously sent us, at the request of the Hong Kong branch of Justice and without comment, a copy of the report enclosed with Mr. Sargant's letter. The Governor subsequently referred to the report in the course of his opening address to the Legislative Council on 1 October. The report is the work of a special three man Committee of the Hong Kong branch of Justice. The three members of the Committee were Messrs. Brooke Bernacchi, Dhun Ruttonjee and Cheung Wing-in. It will be recalled how Mr. Bernacchi burst into print on the subject of an ombudsman immediately following a courtesy call on Lord Shepherd in August 1968. But Mr. Dhun Ruttonjee was much more conserva- tive in his approach to the subject when he saw the Minister in November 1968.
3. When Lord Shepherd visited Hong Kong in June, he had discussions on the subject of the possible appointment of an ombudsman, both with the Governor and with the latter's unofficial advisers.
As a result of those discussions Lord Shepherd felt that there would be certain difficulties in setting up a post of ombudsman in the Colony and he accordingly suggested the idea of appointing a high-powered Secretary to the Office of the Unofficial Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils. This idea received the support of the Governor and of the unofficial members: the post was recently Flag (3) advertised in Hong Kong and applications for appoint-
ment to it are required to be received by 15 November.
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4. consulted Pacific and Indian Ocean Department. We think that the Minister may prefer to deal with both the Hong Kong and Seychelles aspects in one letter and the attached draft reply to Mr. Sargant has there- fore been framed on this assumption. The last para- graph of the draft has been provided by Pacific and Indian Ocean Department who state that there have been, as Mr. Sargant says in his letter, various scandals in the past. Such events were part of life in Seychelles but one hopes that they will happen less often in the future now that development of the islands has begun in earnest. They know of no current evidence pointing to unrequited injustice, although some old sores fester intermittently.
As regards the reference to Seychelles XI have
5. I understand that Miss Emery is away from the office at present and you may therefore wish to send this submission forward through Mr. Morgan.
6.
MNG
(A. W. Gaminara) 12 November, 1969
Since the above was written, a further letter has been addressed to Lord Shepherd by Mr. Sargant on the
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