TNAG-0398-FCO40-444-Appointments-to-supreme-and-district-courts-from-the-Bar-in--1973 — Page 32

SCHFORD

Mr Rushford

1.

P

Reference..

Hong Kong

23

Magistrates

I have not been able to lay my hands on the file. but I have consulted personal correspondence with Denys

Roberts.

2.

The principal matter outstanding related to earlier criticism of the calibre of magistrates recruited for Hong Kong. When I raised this with Denys Roberts he replied as follows:

"With regard to magistrates, I don't think that, when discussing crime with Anthony Royle, I criticised the general calibre of expatriate magistrates which seems

to me to be quite satisfactory.

The point which I made was that it sometimes takes

a fair time for an expatriate to acclimatise himself and

to get the feel of Hong Kong and its problems. This

causes some friction, since the Western attitude to many

subjects is very different from the Chinese approach to

them.

There has been considerable criticism in the Chinese press, and by many prominent Chinese citizens, that the Judiciary, which is almost wholly expatriate, is not sufficiently attuned to local attitudes. This is perhaps best illustrated by the heavy criticism of the level of

sentences which the courts have imposed during the past

2 or 3 years, at a time when serious crime, and

particularly crimes of violence, has greatly increased.

While we have to rely on expatriate magistrates,

I think that the best that can be done, at the processing

and interview stage, is to try to recruit men who are

adaptable, and not too fixed in their opinions by virtue of their European experience. Perhaps it would be

preferable, from this point of view, for a magistrate to

be rather younger than some of those who have come to us

recently.

The real solution, of course, is the employment of

more Chinese magistrates and we hope that this will

become possible in the next few years, as the Law School aims to turn out about 30 graduates annually."

1

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