LAST
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Telephone: 01-233-5994
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
Osted PX
8/2
1 December 1978
I moult
Er.
RECEIVED THE
HKA 373/393/3
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SAY NO. 51
6 DEC 1978
DESK OPROER
INDEX
FA
REGISTRY
ction Taken
ولد
P.P.3
JV Bourne Esq CB
Permanent Secretary
Lord Chancellor's Office
House of Lords
London SWIA OPW
Dean
Wilfred
JULGES FOR HONG KONG
1.
Thank you for your letter of 15 November and its Losures, which we were interested to see.
If the formidable difficulties inherent in Roberts' proposal at the United Kingdom ond could be overcome, we in his Office would certainly agree with him that it has its attractions from the Hong Kong point of view.
Accretion of English Hig. judges to the Supreme Jort would raise its quality generally and would provide a As is of making available a body of experience in particular Phelan of civil law which it lacks at present but which is
needed in view of the way in which the Colony has
w.voloped.
We believe that the presence of the English judges in Court would be welcomed by the population as a whole. Likewise we think it would not be resented by members of the pructising bar so long as judicial appointments were made From time to time from among them.
The existing Supreme Court judges ought not to resent choir presence either, provided their seniority and precedence
401 disturbed, and woulu certainly benefit from their 4.10. The subordurute judiciary might feel that their resence reduced their own prospects of elevation to the
Dome Court, Dul Do long as some vacancies were filled from
District Court, as present, this should not be a Borious problem...
The only Local âlimiculty I can see (and it may be -ginary) is that the English judges might be seen as
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