Mr. Gaminara
Mr. Kinnear
CONFIDENTIAL
Reference..
2. HIKI/29
fur. HKKI/ 8
action on
I ran over with you briefly the points that came J up during the meeting Mr. Royle had this morning with Sir L. Monson, Mr. Wilford and myself.
2.
We should, however, have something on record and I am, therefore, putting the outcome of the meeting down on paper.
The Establishment of an Ombudsman
5. It was accepted that there is the constitutional difficulty over the authority to whom an Ombudsman would report. In spite of this Mr. Royle would like a proposition put to the Governor on the following lines :
(a) An Ombudsman should be appointed. His office
would be quite distinct from the normal machinery of government. It would be best to look for a British barrister for the job which would have to be pretty highly paid, viz: on a par with, say, the Colonial Secretary and the Chief Justice. The Ombudsman would have to have a suitable staff including a Chinese No. 2.
(b) We should consult our own Parliamentary
Commissioner about this proposal, indicating tactfully the answer we wanted from him. di scuss how we do is with Sir L. Monson.
I shall
Reference.......
(c) The Parliamentary Commissioner here has certain restrictions on his activities. We shall have to consider what restrictions will be necessary in Hong Kong.
(a) This is regarded as a public relations exercise
as much as anything.
10 July, 1970
(E. 0. Laird) Hong Kong Department
CONFIDENTIAL