53
-B
Nr Wilford
Sir Lionson
Mr Logan✓
HONG KONG:
1.
Аристо
APPOINTMENTS FROM THE BAR TO THE BENCH
ÁR
A reply has not yet been sent to Mr Tilney's letter of
11 October about appointments from the Bar to the Bench.
2. It was agreed with Sir David Trench largely as a result
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of repeated representations from Mr Gerald de Basto, Mr
Litton's predecessor as Chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association
that even when there was a service candidate suitable for
promotion to the Bench it might be desirable to advance
someone from the Hong Kong Bar who had had extensive experienc e
of private practice. It was also agreed that such appointments
would be "very exceptional" and that they might be more
acceptable to the legal service if they were made at a time
when there were two or more vacancies only one of which was
filled from the Bar.
3. In his saving despatch No Staff 32 of 10 March 1971
the Governor proposed that a circular be issued informing
members of the judiciary and of the three "Legal" Departments
of the Government (Attorney General's Chambers, Registrar General's Department and the Legal Aid Department) of the
possibility of the appointment of members of the Bar to the
Supreme Court and setting out the principles that would be
However
applied. /the Legal Adviser (Sir James McPetrie) felt that
it would be wrong in principle for the Hong Kong Government to
issue a document which in effect would fetter the Crown's
/discretion