Sir Leslie Nonson
CONFIDENTIAL
15
My Watford
16
Subject to any commenti for you
way now scans dear to reply to the Governor's despolin & this letter
Senior Puisne Judge, Hong Kong
time.
HK Depot whe
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frrored accordingly
I have seen copies of the Governor's letters to you of 5 and 6 May. I
remain of the opinion that from a professional point of view the right appointment
would be Mr. Blair-Kerr.
Nevertheless I will not oppose the appointment of
Mr. Scholes. The position we have in Hong Kong at the moment is that Sir Ivo Rigby
is finding his feet as Chief Justice and, in that capacity, coming to terms with
his judicial colleagues. I have a feeling that in this he is going to be
successful at any rate his assessments of the individual Puisne Judges (Governor's
letter of 5 May) are shrewd and penetrating and his comments on Mr. Blair-Kerr and
his comparison of the latter with Mr. Mills-Owens are absolutely fair.
circumstances we might upset the settling down process and stand to lose rather
than gain if we were to overrule the Governor and the Chief Justice and insist on
the appointment of Mr. Blair-Kerr as Senior Puisne Judge. I would,
I would, however, like
to make it clear that I might well have found it impossible to acquiesce in
Mr. Scholes' appointment but for the fact that he proposes to retire in March 1971.
2. There is really nothing to say about the Governor's decision to shelve the
proposals for creating a separate post of Judge of Appeal or a separate Court of
Appeal. I always had some doubt whether the ground had been properly prepared for
such a reform. The purely administrative reforms referred to in the third
paragraph of the Governor's letter of 5 May seem to me to be sound and perhaps you
would care to say so in replying to the Governor.
3.
I am sending a copy of this minute to Mr. Laird.
He curanmstances
I
reluctantly
concur too in the gor's proposals.
PL. srupt
Пар
reply accoringly
ICH SPetie
(J.C. McPetrie)
13 May, 1970
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to the Bov. from Sri L. Momorn.
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