Foreign and Commonwealth Office London S.W.1
6
CONFIDENTIAL
SAVING DESPATCH
HKK14/9-1970
From the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
To the Governor, HONG KONG.
25th March, 1970
No. 102
12 on precious
file
62 Fren
Your Saving Despatch No. 1195 of 25 October, 1969.
The Criminal Procedure (Amendment) (No. 2)
Ordinance, 1968
I agree that the operation of Sections 122 and 123 should
not be made dependent on an order of the Governor, whether or
not such order is made after consultation with the Chief Justice,
and I am glad that you are able to accept an amendment to Section
123 to provide for judgment and sentence to be announced in
open court. But I remain reluctant to leave Section 122 as
it stands, and in particular in so far as it allows judgment
SENTENCE
and matters to be pronounced otherwise than in public.
2. The motive behind this Section, às explained in your
paragraph 4 is understood.
However, it ought to be possible
•
in the normal course of events for the authorities to prepare for, and deal with, an isolated situation and one which will arise at a known time and on a known date (i.e. when judg ment is being announced in Court) If this is not the case (i.e. if the communists are mounting an organised campaign of inter- ference with the Courts generally) then it must follow that the powers available under the Emergency Regulations should
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