Ref. A/6/3/14.
CHIEF JUSTICE'S CHAMBERS,
COURTS OF JUSTICE.
HONG KONG.
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Sir James McPetrie, K.C.M.G., O.B.E.,
The Commonwealth Office,
Downing Street,
LONDON, S.W.1.
My dear Mc Petria, McPetrin,
26th March, 1970
The Attorney General has very kindly provided me, under personal and confidential cover, with a copy of your confidential telegram No. 112 of the 27th February, 1970 on the subject of J.T. Williams' application for admission to the Hong Kong Bar.
I have, for some time past, taken the view that it is really undesirable that District Court Judges, on retirement or on resignation, should be permitted to return to practise at the local Bar and that they should, prior to appointment, be required to give the same undertaking in that respect as that given by Supreme Court Judges on appointment.
I was, therefore, very glad to see from your telegram that the same view was taken in discussions between Roberts-Wray and the Lord Chancellor's Office in 1958.
If you
I write now to ask whether a formal statement could be issued by you to this effect for the information of members of the service. I think that this undertaking should be required of both Leonard and O'Connor if, as I hope, their appointments to the District Court Bench are shortly to be approved. agree with the view I have expressed above, then I would, in due course, inform the present members of the District Court Bench that the policy now is to require such undertakings and that although in the past they were not required, prior to their appointment to that Bench, to give such undertakings, any application which they might make to practise at the Hong Kong Bar on retirement from the Bench would be opposed by the Crown and, I have no doubt, by the Hong Kong Bar Association.
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY No.51 20 APR 1970
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I am sending a copy of this letter to Denys Roberts.
Yours sincerely.
Ivo Rigby
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