practice than is possessed by the average service
judge. If such an appointment pleased the Bar that
would be an additional bonus, but the desire to
gratify the Bar would not in itself be a justification
for the appointment. There is, however, another public
interest aspect of the matter for where, as in Hong
Kong, one is dependent upon a service to maintain the
structure of the judici ary, the public interest
requires that members of the service should be fairly
treated in the matter of promotion prospects;
and
this means that appointments to the Supreme Court Bench
from the local Bar could only be very occasional.
Both these aspects of the public interest would have
to be considered on any occasion when the possibility
of an appointment from the Bar was contemplated and
the decision would depend on what was judged to be
right in the light of the circumstances at the time.
We are not suggesting that the Supreme Court Bench at
present requires to be strengthened by an appointment
from the Bar, but we should like to know whether you
agree that in principle a very occasional appointment
from the Bar could be accepted on the basis that I
have suggested above.
4.
In the meantime we are asking the experts in the
Ministry of Overseas Development to undertake a study
of pension arrangements and will forward the results
in due course.
Mr.%
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