(118281) Dd. 391599 1,500м 2/69 Hw.
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry
No. HKK 14/15
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted. Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
In Confidence
8
CONFIDENTIAL
DRAFT Saving Despatch
Type 1 +
17/E
From
To:-
Governor,
HONG KONG.
208
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
Your Saving Despatch No. 4 of 3 January.
Public Order Ordinance.
I am
We are grateful for the considerable extent to which the draft Bill enclosed with your Saving
Despatch meets the various criticisms levelled at
the Public Order Ordinance, 1967. The matters
raised in your paragraph 2, together with certain
other points, are dealt with below. References are
to existing sections of the Ordinance and to para- graphs of your Attorney-General's comments on the
draft Bill.
2. Section 2: (paragraph 3).
[ Take in slip],
We accept your views on this point and note
the amendments to seetions 14 and 32 which are pro-
vided for by clauses 8 and 19 of the draft Bill.
3. Section 7: (paragraph 5).
This section, as amended by clause 4 of the draft Bill, will now apply to funeral processions only and not to public meetings for the purposes of funerals. These provisions presuppose that it would always be possible to apply for a licence to hold a funeral procession, two days before such procession, and this appears to be a somewhat doubtful presumption. Moreover, it appears that
the powers conferred on the Commissioner of Police by section 7(4) to refuse such a licence are too wide and that some of the grounds on which a licence may be refused are not appropriate in the case of
І натрий such processions. It is appreciated that in the circumstances of Hong Kong strict control is required over funeral processions, but it seems that section 7
does not provide the appropriate control and it may
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CONFIDENTIAL