Now solicitors
join the 'war
(Finst
14 MAY 1973 COL
By RODNEY TASKER
9
GOVERNMENT's anti-crime drive, already under fire from Hongkong's barristers, has
now landed it in trouble with solicitors.
It is not the tough new anti- their statement strongly criticising. crime laws themselves which are, the new crime-cracking laws. annoying the solicitors, but the way Government has misrepre- sented the views of their or- .ganisation, the Law Society.
The Government anti-crime campaign committee approached the society for its comments on the drive two weeks ago
The society's committee replied with a statement pledging general support for the war on crime.
was not
But the statement issued by the Government Information Service until last night
!
Law Society committee meniper Ian MacCallum said he was “very unhappy with the way Government handled the state- ment.
By releasing it yesterday, it made it look as though the Law Society backed the anti-crime laws, published in the Govern- ment Gazette on Friday, he said.
Criminals
Meanwhile Urban Councillor
- a day after the barristers' body, Dr Denny Huang told the MAIL the Bar Association, had delivered, he did not think Government was
*
What The STAR thinks
Legal cutrage
*་-^་ E
T IS indeed the duty of our legal profes- sion to react with outrage if they believe those four new Fight Violent Crime bills are a threat to the liberty of the people of Hongkong and that the trend of recent legislation is to extend the scope of criminal law.
14 MAY 1970 STAR However it is for the people of this community to determine with their eyes wide open, whether or not the threat to their liberty from the law is greater than the threat from violent criminals whose recorded crimes have increased 208 per cent in four years. The Governor said last Friday: :Some com- munities may accept an increase in crime as an inevitable complement to prosperity in the latter half of the 20th century. “But our community does not.
being tough enough with criminals.
Several convicted criminals with death penalties should be hanged to "coincide" with the campaign, he said. "This will show people Government means business."
be
"Magistrates must also realistic and less lenient. "Government says there will be tough laws to combat crime, but whether these laws will be carried out or not is another question.
"There's no use handing out · capital punishment without carrying it out.
"Several hangings will dramatise the campaign," Dr Huang said.
"If Govt really means business then hang several in death row now why wait?"
justice cherished with very sound reasons by our legal men trained in Britain's very admirable principles.
ī
Many Hongkong people think the situation is different and that they do have some right to go about things their own way. And the truth is the days of any sort of colonial evangelism, of bringing the colonies all the good things of the mother country, are as dead as a dodo in this part of the world.i That the situation is different is quite easily
demonstrated.
Take the jury system for example.
"It rightly demands action and is ready to play We all know the difficulties it is in here.
its part."
The Governor's words do indeed reflect the mood of most of the people of Hongkong, who he rightly said are Indignant and have real fear and dis- tress about the current crime situation. The STAR thinks they might also feel indig-
nant toward those who might suggest they. should always follow the same system of
There are too many Europeans on juries, yet when the proportion of Chinese is increased, we immediately run into language problems. Do our legal men think all-Chinese juries would give anybody a fairer trial in Hongkong considering the mood of the vast majority of our people today? On legal aid however the Bar Association and Justice do have a much better case.
هنگ
T