1,500M 2/69 Hw.
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry
No. HKK 14/38
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
..In Confidence
16
DRAFT letter
Type 1 +
21/10
To:-
www.
The Hon. D.T.E. Roberts, OBE,
Attorney General,
Hong Kong.
From
Mr Carter.
Telephone No. & Ext.
QC,
Department
17
Thank you for your letter of 9 October about the
prevention of bribery Bill.
I note that the Governor may raise this matter
with us in December but I thought that I should reply
now on the point raised in your second paragraph con-
cerning unsworn statements by accused persons.
It would undoubtedly be objectionable in principle
to discriminate against one particular section of the
community (i.e. public servants) and in respect of one
category of offence Qoffences of corruption committed
by or in relation to public servants). However, if you
expect to come up against tactical difficulties (and we
are not clear what these are likely to be) in getting
the procedure changed, we should have thought that the
best time to introduce the amendment (on a general
basis) would be immediately after the announcement had
been made here of the intention to abolish the
procedure in this country. Would this not serve
substantially to neutralise any opposition?
If you
are anxious to introduce, the
Amendment sooner than.
no
than this,
we would
Ejection to
your
doing so
as
bear to how
Soon
as
to introduce
the decision has
it where and before any
(118281) Dd. 391599