GOVERNMENT HOUSE
PERSONAL & CONFIDENTIAL
Dear Mumsn
HONG KONG,
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in 14
10th October 1969
Mw
29/10
Thank you for your letter No. HKK 14/25
of 3rd September, about the succession to Hogan as Chief Justice. I thought it best to give you the recommendation you asked for now, rather than later, since it would provide us with a basis for discussion in London should you wish to discuss it there.
2.
For this appointment, I think it is necessary to mention only 4 officers and these, in the order of their current seniority, are:-
(a) Mr. D.T.E. Roberts, Attorney General, born 19.1.23 (b) Sir Ivo Rigby, Senior Puisne Judge, born 2.6.11 (c) Mr. Justice A.D. Scholes, born 16.12.10
(d) Mr. Justice W.A. Blair-Kerr, born 1.12.11
Mr. D.T.E. Roberts
3.
Roberts is the most senior of these officers in the local order of precedence and occupies an important and influential position in the community as Attorney General. He has filled that post with marked ability and has qualities which would, I think, make him a good Chief Justice but he came to his present appointment at a comparatively early age and has occupied it for only a short time. I should be surprised if he would not himself agree that he can wait for a few more years before expecting elevation to what is now the highest appointment in the overseas judiciary.
Sir Leslie Monson, KCMG, CB, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London, S.W.1.
HICK 14/25
RES.
16
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