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discretion in the matter of selecting persons to be HM Judges
in Hong Kong, and I conveyed his views (with which both the
ODA and we in Hong Kong Department agreed) to Sir Hugh Norman-
Walker in my letter of 7 July 1971.
4.
Because we did not know what action Hong Kong had taken
in this matter I wrote to Mr Roberts, the Attorney General,
seeking his assistance (apart from the circular there was a
letter from Mr de Basto to which no reply had been sent).
In his reply Mr Roberts has told us that two petitions are on
the way to the Secretary of State - one from a number of District
Judges and Magistrates asking for an assurance that appointments
from the Bar to the Bench will not be made or, if they are
made, that compensation will be provided (in some form unspecified)
and the other from the Hong Kong Bar Committee asking that there
should be appointments from the Bar to the Bench. These two
petitions will be sent to us with the Governor's recommendations
and in the circumstances Mr Roberts has suggested that it would
be sufficient for Mr Royle to tell Mr Tilney that he under-
stands that the Chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association has
submitted a petition on this subject and that it would not
therefore be appropriate for Mr Royle to deal with the problem
by personal correspondence. A draft is attached.
Eraina Raio
E O Laird
Hong Kong Department
18 January 1972
This
Seems
2.
right.
will soon be called for
But
a jugment of Salaman on the 2 petitions!
Kunlife, P.10.
اور
P.TO