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3.
The Governor sought the views and advice of the Commonwealth
Office on the draft Public Order Bill before its enactment and the
matter was given careful and prolonged examination in the
Commonwealth Office over a period of several months before the draft Bill was agreed to.
4. Shortly after the enactment of the Ordinance, the Reform Club of Hong Kong (an organisation of some five thousand paid-up members) submitted a petition to Parliament on the subject of the Ordinance, through the medium of Mr. John Rankin, M.P. (see attached Hansard extract). The petition asked for the Ordinance
to be disallowed.
5.
The Ordinance was also the subject of considerable criticism by the Hong Kong branch of "Justice" (the British section of the International Commission of Jurists). Their criticism was
levelled mainly at the increased powers given by the Ordinance to
Police Officers in order to strengthen the hands of the latter in
dealing with lawless elements in the community; and at certain
provisions which create offences in connection with unlawful assemblies. "Justice" maintained that certain of these provisions e.g Section 12) were such as to do away with the requirement that guilty intent should exist before an offence could be committed.
It may be this kind of provision which Mr. Allaun has in mind in
asking his Questions.
6.
Certain of the points raised by "Justice" were considered by the Commonwealth Secretary's Legal Advisers to have some substance
and we have been in correspondence with the Governor with a view to
securing certain amendments to the Ordinance. It is as a result
of this correspondence that the Governor has sent us the draft
Amending Bill referred to in paragraph 1 above.
7. In Hong Kong's densely crowded conditions (five thousand persons per acre in certain urban areas), large crowds can gather
in a matter of moments and it is easy for trouble makers to stir up
/ disorder