Confidential
HK X 14/30
2.
Subject to the views of those concerned here, I agreed provisionally with Roberts that any further letter to de Basto should follow the line taken by Lord Shepherd in June, 1969. I can now confirm that it is accepted here that we cannot go further than this, and if you see no objection, we should be grateful if a letter could be addressed to de Basto in the following terms:-
"I am directed to refer to your letter of 7 May addressed to Sir J. McPetrie in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and to say that the Secretary of State cannot give any undertaking as to how future vacancies on the Supreme Court Bench will be filled, but that the views of the Hong Kong Bar Association will be kept in mind.'
On the substance of the matter, it was agreed when the Governor was here last autumn that even where there was a Service candidate suitable for promotion to the Supreme Court Bench It might occasionally be desirable to advance someone from the Hong Kong Bar who had had extensive experience of private practice. Such appointments would of course be very exceptional. The members of the Service could not be expected to like such an appointment, but it was thought that it would be more acceptable to them if made at a time when there were two or more vacancies to be filled and the other vacancy or vacancies were filled by Service candidates. A suitable opportunity for an appointment from the Bar will occur in 1972/73 because Rigby, Scholes, Blair-Kerr and Mills-Owens will all have reached retirement age within three years, and we suggest that this possibility should be kept in mind.
On the question of pensions, unless special provision was made in respect of Judges appointed from the local Bar the probability is that they would reach retiring age before having served sufficient length of time to qualify for a pension. Also, the relevant factor would have to be greater in their case than in the case of career officers, otherwise the pension that would be received would be somewhat derisory. We appreciate that there are difficulties in this respect and we are going back to the ODM to see if we can find a satisfactory solution.
Mrs Retten of OBA asked to provide this
(E. 0. Laird)
c.c. Sir J. McPetrie
Confidential