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Mr. Wilford ord
RESTRICTED
Reference.
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Sie L. Mysm. Milyon
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN HONG KONG
1.
En. 144
Your minute on Hong Kong telegram no. 222
attached.
2. Under the Letters Patent the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council, may make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Colony. The Crown does however "reserve to Ourselves, Our heirs and successors, full power and authority to disallow, through one of Our Principal Secretaries of State, any such law as aforesaid."
3. Under the Royal Instructions, unless instructions have previously been obtained from the Secretary
of State, the Governor is specifically directed not to assent "in Our name" to any Bill of any of certain specific classes eg Any Bill affecting the Currency of the Colony or relating to the
issue of Bank notes". This new Hong Kong Bill drumst Joll within any of the classes specified.
4. You will remember that the Governor first raised the question of corporal punishment in his long letter to Sir L Monson about the increase in violent crime. In his reply to that letter Sir L Monson said that we would not comment on what the Governor had said about corporal punishment because the courts already had powers to impose caning and we understood that there was no intention. of introducing new legislation. Apart from that
Sir L Monson ended his letter by saying that we wished to be kept in touch with developments.
I would maintain therefore that the Governor was under an obligation to consult us about any new legislation involving corporal punishment. In my view the words "for your information" should not have been used by whoever drafted this telegram.
5.
We have not yet received the copy of the Executive Council paper dealing with this Bill. When we get it I shall submit the matter. On such information as we have from the Hong Kong telegram my preliminary view is that we should accept this proposal. What makes these situations so difficult for us is the Hong Kong habit of submitting to the Executive Council - without consulting us first - papers on subjects in which they must know Ministers here will be interested. I hope that we shall be able to get this point across to Mr MacLehose.
I shall
Shell Gineat anvant
your
mbrus matt
1 April 1971
RESTRICTED
E O Laird
Hong Kong Department
Kunhilfe 14