W(B)L 51-74 33
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry
No. HKK 14/14
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
ret
Confidential.
Restricted. Laclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
In Confidence
Revised
DRAFT Letter
To:-
His Excellency
Sir David Trench, GCMG, MC,
Government House,
Victoria,
Hong Kong.
Type 1 +
From
Mr. K.M. Wilford
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
(34)
(1)
We are glad that in your letter of 30 August
to Carter you have felt able to accept the principle
of an occasional appointment to the Bench from the
Bar. We are, however, a little concerned that you
should lay down as a prerequisite the satisfaction
of all three criteria set out in Michael Gass' letter
to John Moreton of 28 November, for that passage of
the letter does not, with respect, seem to be based on
an adequate analysis of the question at issue.
2. In the circumstances envisaged in Gass'
condition (a) (i.e. where "officers of sufficient
calibre were not available in the Judicial and Legal
Service") there would surely be no room for argument.
If there were no one in the service, in Hong Kong or
elsewhere, who was fit to be appointed (a most
unlikely contingency in the foreseeable future) it
would be the duty of the Crown to seek a suitable
person from a source outside the service and the
local Bar would be an obvious and legitimate source.
What we are concerned with is whether, and if so in
what circumstances, it would be justifiable to make
an appointment to the Supreme Court Benchfrom the
local Bar even though there was a service candidate
This depends, in broad
fit for the appointment.
terms, upon the public interest. It might, we suggest,
sometimes be in the public interest to strengthen the
Supreme Court Bench by appointing a member of the
local Bar with more extensive experience of private
/practice