At the same time the Hong Kong Government are
likely to accept modifications to the Criminal
Procedure (Amendment) Bill and the Public Order
(Amendment) Bill, designed to clarify the scope
of these new laws.
I do hope that you and your members will regard
these developments as satisfactory.
At the same
time I would ask that the members of your Hong Kong
branch should bear in mind the real problems facing
the Hong Kong Government, and should give what
support they properly can to measures to speed up
the administration of justice in the Colony, and to
deal with the current wave of violent crime. The
Governor's professional advisers are practising
lawyers with the same background as your members;
so are the judges and magistrates. The proposed
legislation is not intended to give the Hong Kong
Government greater influence over the Judiciary,
nor will it have this effect; while the suggestion
in Mr Litton's letter to Mr Sargant that the
Government's campaign against violent crime is an
exercise to whittle down judicial independence, is
of course a travesty of the facts.
I have written frankly.
will not take this amiss.
I hope that your members
The Governor bears a
heavy responsibility; he needs and deserves the
assistance and wise advice of the legal profession.
t
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