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3.
Our Ministers accept the force of all these
arguments; and after consulting the Law Officers
and the Whips, who take the same view, we have
reluctantly come to the conclusion that, unless
the Hong Kong Government produce evidence against
Godber of a returnable offence, such as actual
corruption, we can take no steps to send him back
to face trial.
4.
Sir Alex Do-stas Hane
Nevertheless, thepopstary of tate and
Mr Royle have suggested that we ought now to look
again at the general applicability of the double
criminality rule to the dependent territories;
not with a view to sending Godber back to Hong
Kong, but because of the light which his case has
thrown on the working of the 1967 Act. I realise
that our two Departments considered the question
in 1966 when the new legislation was being
prepared.
But having now been confronted by the
full implications of the Godber case, I wonder
whether, on this particular point, we may have
been wrong.
•
5. The double criminality rule was applied to
Commonwealth countries in 1967 as a departure from
the previous law, in a situation of increasing
change within the Commonwealth.
It was also
decided at the same time to apply the double
Criminality rule to the dependent territories,
although in other respects they were not treated
like independent countries.
6.
This last decision was not, however, wholly
logical.
In the case of colonies like Hong Kong,
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