Reference..
(2
Mr Fifoot
There are two vacancies for puisne judges, following the recent retirement of Mr Justice Scholes, and the imminent retirement of Mr Justice Mills-Owens.
1.
2.
Of the candidates proposed in paragraph 3 of (5), Judge Morley John has ordinarily good reports which, since he is first in seniority, justify his promotion to one of the resulting vacancies. I think it is reasonable to agree, as regards Judge Leonard, that his experience on the bench is too short to justify his promotion, though his reports on his service in the Law Office are very good. Judge Li's reports, were they the sole basis for a decision, would not in my view justify his promotion; we need to consider how far the considerations expressed in paragraph 8 of the despatch offset these. We need to consider that seriously, whatever we may think of the absurdity of the concluding sentence of paragraph 7.
3. Judge Cons has good reports which would probably have justified him in superseding a candidate ahead of him with such ordinary reports as Mr Li but with- out the attendant special circumstances.
4. I do not consider that we can oppose the promotion of these two judges, However, I am curious to know what will happen to the post of Senior Puisne Judge, which was held by Mr Justice Scholes. The sole significance of this post is that its holder acts as chief justice; the circumstance work to Sir Ivo Rigby's own advantage when he was promoted chief justice against the claims of Mr Blair-Kerr, an infinitely stronger candidate on merit but one who (in the eyes of Hong Kong) had the drawback of shorter service.
5. If the Foreign and Commonwealth Office agree to the two promotions they should, I think, ask about this. I have, incidentally, been reminded that, although no actual submission is made, the successful candidate must be asked if he wishes his name to be submitted to the Queen. I do not myself know the form of words in which this is put to the Governor.
CODE 18-75
dictated by
FL Greenland
3 May 1971
Sir James Melitie
Kong Dept
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