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Q
GOVERNMENT HOUSE
HONG KONG
PERSONAL & CONFIDENTIAL
5th May 1970
14
him dear Jeshi km
Thank you for your letter of 20th
March, which I have discussed with the Chief Justice.
As regards the creation of a separate post of a Judge of Appeal or of a fully constituted separate Court of Appeal, I have after consultation with the Chief Justice no immediate intention of reactivating either matter. Within a short period, of three years, four of the present substantive Judges (Sir Ivo Rigby and Messrs Scholes, Mills-Owens and Blair-Kerr) will all have reached retirement age and there will be four entirely new judges to be appointed. That, in the view of the Chief Justice and in my view will be the opportune time to reconsider the appointment of an Appeal Judge or possibly two such Judges.
Complaints have, in the past, been raised by the Bar that there was no uniform constitution of the Full Court; that they never knew what judges were going to constitute that Court; whether, indeed the Court might not sometimes be constituted of two judges only - a matter which, with some justification they deprecated; and whether one of the judges might not in fact be an acting judge as distinct from a substantive judge, which they also deprecated. is, I am advised, perfectly possible, by administrative action, to constitute a regular Full Court, whether
Sir Leslie Monson, KCMG, CB, Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
RECEIVED IN
REGISTRY No. 51
11 MAI 1970
HILK14/30
It