DRAFT 'A'
Type 1 +
From
Registry No.
PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL/STAFF IN CONFIDENCE
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
DRAFT Letter
To:-
Governor,
Hong Kong.
In Confidence
Sirt Monom
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
Trywer 13
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This phose
Seems Alrose
mw
In your letter to me of 10 October proposing Rigby for
Chief Justice you said that you had plans for creating a new
post of Appeal Judge in the near future for which you would
recommend Blair-Kerr and you discussed this with us in November.
Comparing the Ordinances submitted under cover of your despatches Nos. 157 and 158 of 4 February with their respective Bills, it
take in slip Jour
I
seems to us that your plans have come unstuck and we should very
was apparent to us that your plans came unstuck. On referring to proceedings in Legislative Council
We found that the pronions relating to the
appointment of
a.n
the Committee stage
intervention of
Appeal Judge were deleted at
as
a result of
The
Oswald Cheung who pressed for an
Why examination of the question of creating separate Court of Appeal.
Senior Puisne Judge presides in his place; and that in general
the tenure of this special post puts its occupant in a position
can
to be a more influential member of the judiciary than would
I río not see how we
en do-biker than
otherwise be the case. We shall therefore have to advise
Ministers that, if a further appointment to the post of Senior ·
Puisne Judge is to be made, the main criterion should be capacity
and not seniority. and I do not think that Ministers would be
disposed to accept advice in any other/sense.
On this basis
/Scholes
(118281) Dd. 391599 1,500м 2/69 Hw.
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