"first-class" while their brethren were seen as "second- class" and that local sentiment might feel that better justice could be obtained from the former than the latter. However I would hope that the performance of the "second- class" judges might be good enough, even in comparison with the "first-class", to dispel this idea.
7. Up to the present most vacancies in the Supreme Court have readily been filled from the local public service, though one High Court judge (Trainor J) was appointed on transfer from another territory and one (Zimmern J) from the Hong Kong bar - the first from this source. There has been no need hitherto to look outside Hong Kong to keep the Court up to strength, in spite of a substantial increase in the number of judges, and it could not be said that there is any immediate shortage of candidates for the vacancies in prospect.
2. We may however reach a situation in the fairly near future when it will be difficult to fill vacancies in the Supreme Court with judges of the right calibre. It is still possible to find one or two candidates from the colonial legal service outside Hong Kong but this source is drying up rapidly as the few remaining dependent territories proceed to independence. The Hong Kong bar is in theory keen to provide Supreme Court Judges but in fact few of its members are willing to serve and well qualified to do so. The District Court still supplies candidates, but our feeling lately is that its ability to provide High Court judges of the right quality may be diminishing. In these circumstances an accretion from the English High Court would be welcome as & valuable means of keeping up the strength, as well as the
uality, of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong.
9. I assume, however, it would be very difficult for you to take matters much further so long as we are able to keep the Hong Kong Courts adequately need from the available sources of ruitment. I also take it that you would expect us to
-ho determined attempts to recruit judges from the English Bar before pursuing the idea of seconding High Court judges do tong Ko3. The English Bar is a source that has not so far been tried but our recent essuy in finding an Attorney- General from amongst ius erbers suggests that it might supply some well-qualified and willing candidates.
10. My own feeling is that we could not make out a sufficiently strong case to justify giving support to Roberts' proposal at present. But we should certainly wish you to
/consider
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