CONFIDENTIAL
7.
Sir James MaPetris, the Legal Advis r, has commented as follows
on the correspondence with Hong Kong 1-
"I agree with his rejection of Mr. de Basto's argument that such appointments are desirable in order to dispel doubt about the impartiality of the Supreme Court Bench. I think he is right, too, in suggesting that kr. de Basto's request was really motivated by the desire of the Hong Kong Bar Association to ses some of ita members appointed to high judicial office. That is a perfectly understandable and honourable desire which does not need the support of far-fetahed arguments such as that
referred to above. Indeed where a Supreme Court Bench is entirely or predominantly composed of Service judges it could be in the public interest to make an occasional appointment direct from the local Bar, since such an appointee could have a genuine contribution to make to the administration of justice by virtue of his having had much greater experience of private practice than the average Service judge. Equally, of course, where one is dependent upon a Bervice to maintain the structure of the judiciary, it is in the public interest that an æpointment to the Bench direct from the Bar should not be made in circumstances in which it would constitute an injustice to the Service and hence a legitimate cause of grievance, The weighing of these two opposing aspects of the public interest must be a matter of judgment on each ocassion in the light of the circumstances the time; but I think one can safely say that in a situation such as one has in Hong Kong one could not contemplate more than a very occasional appointment from the local Bar,"
And more recently he added the following cament i
"Sir Michael Oass proposes as one of the conditions that would have to be satisfied before an appointment could be rude from the Bar that "(a) officers of sufficient calibre were not available in the Judicial and Legal Service". We could not. I think, agree to a firm condition to this effect if, as I have suggested in my minute at (5), the object or one of the objects of making an appointment from the Bar was to introduce onto the
/ Bench ...
CONFIDENTIAL