Letters to the Editor
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
NOVEMBER. 30 1968.
The Law Society gives its
are some-
Sir,-To judge from the re- cent te of correspondence one migh magine that the Emer- gency
Regulations thing new; they have in fact been part of the law of Hong- kong for almost twenty years. This I think puts some of the recent letters into perspective, prompted as they were by an analogy that had been drawn between detainees in Hongkong and Anthony Grey in Peking. Because this was the start of the correspondence it seemed entirely inappropriate
for the Law Society to join in what was essentially a political argument. Other people and other bodies may be anxious to make out of it what political capital they can; the Law Society re- gards it as being no part of its function to do this, particularly as it must be careful not to al- low the views of one or two of its members, acting indepen- dently or in other capacities, to be represented as being the views of its members generally.
The Law Society naturally re- grets that the effect of the Re- gulations is to reduce the effi- ciency of the rule of law in Hongkong during an emergency. Unlike some of your correspon- dents however, it is not forget- ting that the regulations are Emergency Regulations and that they were brought into ef- fect during what was an emer gency Notoriously, it is at such time that the rule of law tends to be under the greatest stress.
-
Although it is known that a Committee of Review has been established to hear the objec-
tions of detainees, the composi- tion of this Committee has never been announced. This is presumably because, at the time it was established, there was a very real fear that its members might become targets for as- sassination attempts. The Law Society would certainly be hap- pier if it were to be made known that the majority of the Com- mittee of Review consisted of members of the judiciary, but it takes the view that the proper time for representation on this, and other matters including the power of the Colonial Secretary rather than the judges to make detention orders, is when the emergency can be said to be completely over.
G. SINCLAIR STEVENSON, President
The Incorporated Law Society of Hongkong.
Regulation 31
Sir, The letter of the Secre- tary of Justice (S. C. M. Post Nov. 28) has filled me with great anxiety. It appears that the disease to which I referred in my letter of Nov 26 has now become endemic. At the rate it is spreading, it would soon become an epidemic.
Surely Mr MacCallum and his Committee have failed to understand the implications of my letter Let me summarise as follows:-
1. When the internal crisis arose last year Government brought into force the Emer- gency Regulations and added
thereto a new provision (Re- gulation 31).
2. These Regulations are still in force.
3. The Bar Committee and the Committee of Justice have protested against Regulation 31, and as Mr MacCallum states, on the ground that Regulation 31 gave Government powers far beyond those
those reasonably quired, and further that his Committee feel that there is no good reason for retaining this Regulation at this stage.
re-
4. Government feels other- wise, and the Emergency Re- gulations remain in full force and effect.
was
views
deal with an erst-while local Philby or Blake or others of their ilk. On the second question, perhaps Mr Mac- Callum and
his Committee would care to set forth their grounds and reasons for their conclusion that "at this stage"
31 Regulation
is no longer necessary.
Mr MacCallum says that they are prepared to take the matter up in London with the Commonwealth Office if need be. If and when he
goes, perhaps he will at the same time lodge a strong protest on my behalf to the Chancellor of the Exchequer against the increase of tuppence in the price of a bar of chocolates and, will
he please tell Mr Jenkins Roy the
that "in my opinion" the
currency crisis does not in fact exist, and please also tell him how naughty he is to have done this just when I am about to com- mence my Christmas shopping.
Evidently then there are two questions to be. considered. First,
Regulation 31 "reasonably required" at date when the Emergency Re- gulations came into force, and secondly is it required "at this stage"? Government's answer to both questions would appear to be in the positive, and for obvious reasons Government cannot be asked why.
answer
Mr MacCallum and his Com- mittee, in my view, have done so much to confuse the public in the matter of the Emergency Regulations that, if Sir Winston Churchill were alive today and asked to describe briefly what Mr MacCallum and his Com- mittee have done, surely he would say: Never in the field of Hongkong politics have many been misled by so few.
Mr MacCallum and his Com- mittee persist that the answer to these questions should be in the negative. They give as the reason for their
to the first question that Re- gulation $1 confers powers on the Colonial Secretary far beyond those reasonably re- quired. I should like to ask Mr MacCallum whether he and his Committee have thought of 1 found much amusement in and proposed to Government. Mr MacCallum's suggestion that some alternative power so that Regulation 31 should be Government may effectively - scrapped - because the United
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Nations had designated this to be the Human Rights Year. My first reaction was, what a clever chap he is and if he had been marching in the place of General Maltby on the journey from Kennedy Road Barracks to the Prisoner of War Camp at Shamshuipo on Christmas Day, 1941, he would have said to the Commander of the Japanese Forces "You can't do this to us, we are in the midst of our Christmas Festivities." But when I thought of the reply he would have received, I laughed so much that I had to put my pen down and gulp a double brandy to prevent myself from having convulsions.
A SOLICITOR.
Appalled
Sir,-I am appalled by the recent letter from "A Solicitor" (S.C.M. Post, Nov. 27) on the issue of the Emergency Regu- lations which, from a member of the legal profession, shows a total inability to appreciate the fundamental nature of the issue involved.
The issue is a moral one the Hongkong Government, presumably with the support of the British
is Government,
holding a number of people in detention without trial. All the red herrings and non sequiturs produced by "A Solicitor" do not disguise this fact.
D. B. L. PODMORE. (More Letters on Page 19)