BACKGROUND NOTE
Mr. Royle wrote to Lord Shepherd on 2 December. A copy of that letter and Lord Shepherd's reply are attached.
2. Mr. Royle's question about the cases of detainees being examined by law officers and charges being laid against them stems from a letter written on behalf of the Hong Kong Bar Association which queried the justification for the retention of emergency powers and argued that, if the power of detention was still required, something should be done to ensure that "the basic rules of natural justice are required to be observed before Detention Orders become lawful". Mr. Royle is, we think, unlikely to question the need to retain
emergency powers.
3. All emergency powers are, of course, absolute in that they involve departure from the normal processes of the rule of law. In Hong Kong the application of this power is tempered by :-
(a)
careful examination by the law officers of each case before a detention order is made;
(b) the reasons for detention are communicated to the detainee;
the Committee of Review procedure for hearing the detainee's
objections to his detention.
(c)
(See paragraphs 5-7 of Notes for Supplementaries)
The essential point is that detainees against whom admissible evidence could be obtained for involvement in specific offences would have been charged and tried in the courts. This is the main purpose of the examination of each case by the law officers. They have been detained under emergency powers because such evidence of direct
participation in illegal acts is not forthcoming and it is known,
on reliable information, that they have played a part behind the
scenes in planning and organising such acts.
4. Mr. Royle's other question is concerned to elicit how many of the
detainees are aliens and why they are not held under the Emergency (Deportation and Detention) Regulations as distinct from Regulation 31 of the Principal Emergency Regulations. The latter regulation
provides for the detention of British subjects and aliens. The
Deportation and Detention Regulations, on the other hand, relate to aliens only; they are emergency powers that have, in one form or another, been in force continuously since 1956 and provide an
administrative procedure under which deportation orders can be issued
/ against
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