20
CO...
HKA 373/393/5
RELLIVED IN MARSANY NO. 51
2 1 AUG 1978
DESK OFFICER
RIDEX
REGISTRY
PA
ction Taken
P.P.30%
ve freely
J W Bourne Esq CB
Lord Chancellor's Office
House of Lords
London SW1A OPW
Lel
X
(2)
My dear Wilpat
HONG KONG:
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Me.
London SW1A 2AH
233 5994
18 August 1978
そ
ale
zıla
ви
2 weeks for reply
APPOINT MENT OF ATTORNEY-GENERAL
Ee
Noted P.P.
218/8.
18/8.
Once more we should be grateful for your help over Hong Kong, this time in relation to the enclosed telegram No.976 of 11 August.
2.
The paragraph referred to in paragraph 3 of the telegram reads as follows:-
"(8)
Transrers between the Judiciary and the Legal Department
This again is a matter which was raised by the Committee of the Bar Association wit.. Mr McPetrie. Appointments of Crown Counsel to act as District Judges or magistrates and of magistrates to act as Crown Counsel no doubt offer valuable experience to the officers in question. Nevertheless there would seem to be some force in the contention that regular acting appointments of this kind detract from the appearance of an impartial judiciary separate and distinct from the Executive and, subject to your views, it seems too that such appointments should be rather exceptional and should be made only when staffing exigencies so require. Actual transfers between the judiciary and le al departments are not, of course, open to the same objection."
I believe that in fact members of the Legal Department have sometimes been appointed to be District Judges though I do not recall an appointment to the Supreme Court. Magistrates have also I believe occasionally been appointed to the Legal Department but I do not recall any instance where a judge has been so appointed. In any case I do not believe that when the paragraph was drafted, the last sentence was intended to embrace the possibility of appointing a judge to be Attorney General, with or without an assurance thathe could revert to the bench.
CONFIDENTIAL
13.
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