HKUS Registry 14/9
No.
CURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
..In Confidence
CONFIDENTIAL
DRAFT
Saving Despatch
Type 1 +
To:-
-Governor, Hong Kong
His Excellency
Sir David Trench, OMG, MC.
Government House,
HONG KONG
From
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
එ
ما
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
по
102
Please fait for issue
no
25.3.200.
generally)
Your Saving Despatch No.1195 of 25 October, 1969
The Criminal Procedure (Amendment) (No.2) 20 Ordinance, 1968 7
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 am meet reluctant
and his hates in so to leave Section 122 aş'it stands, particularly sinee it was our impression that your Attorney General had for allows judgment and sentence to be fornommend the wire Then in publis agreed
discussions with Legal Advisers here during
August 1969 that that Section too should be similarly
amended.
motive behind this Section, as explained te
·
2. The argumentedvarced in your paragraph 4 is appreciated. 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 when judgment is being announced in Court). If this is not the case (i.e the communists are mounting an organised campaign of interference with
the Courts) then it must follow that the powers
available under the Emergency Regulations should be
used sooner rather than later. I realise that you
are anxious to refrain from taking the latter step
unless this is absolutely unavoidable, but I am sure you will agree that there must be a limit to the process of embodying in the substantive law of the Colony provisions required only in time of an
Emergency. The difficulty, of course, is to decide
where to draw the line and on what grounds.
On the
/ one hand
(118281) Dd. 391599 1,500M 2/69 Hw.