香港總督府
GOVERNMENT HOUSE
HONG KONG
STAFF IN CONFIDENCE
13 February 1978
HKD43)/303/7
274 NO. 51
1 6 MAR 1973
D
1.
LAGY
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When I saw you in November we assumed that I would retire in November of this year and we considered the coincidental appointment of the Chief Justice (due to retire in March next year). The preferred successor was the present Chief Secretary, Sir Denys Roberts (formerly Attorney General).
2. We decided that in the circumstances Sir Denys should stay on as Chief Secretary to see the new Governor in, and that Justice Pickering should succeed as Chief Justice for two years to keep the seat warm for Sir Denys. This arrangement would also allow the incoming Governor to choose his own Chief Secretary.
3. I have now accepted the Secretary of State's invitation to stay on until next summer, and I suggest this calls for a change of plan.
4. In the first place I am not at all happy about the present state of the judiciary. Sir Geoffrey Briggs's early promise has faded out, and until there is a new Chief Justice new life will not be injected into what is now a legally sound, but rather flabby and much too expatriate body, some of whose members are also rather out of touch with the community and its needs. Pickering, with the prospect of a short tenure, would not be the man to achieve much chănge.
I am therefore anxious to move
in Sir Denys as soon as possible, and think the postponement of my retirement provides the opportunity to do so. I suggest therefore that we cancel the idea of appointing Pickering and take a firm decision in principle to appoint Sir Denys as a successor to Sir Geoffrey Briggs.
5.
This
If this is agreed, Sir Denys would need to break off from all participation in the administration for between four and six months before taking over. means that he should disengage about October/November of this year.
(CIHKA 373/393/D
/ 6.