-7-
The Attorney General has not sought to argue further
in this respect. What ho says is that the position is different in Hong Kong because Hong Kong is a ceded territory. In that
case, as he puts his proposition, "a new local law is created".
He refers to Commonwealth and Colonial Law by Sir Kenneth Roberts-Wray,
at p.157 under the heading "The Prerogative in Conquered and Ceded
Colonies:
"It is established beyond question that, just
as these colonies are acquired by virtue of the Prerogative to make war, peace and treaties, so the Sovereign has full power under the Frerogative to make laws either in the constituent field or otherwise."
The authority is Campbell v. Hall
says this:
(12)
..t p.931 Lord Mansfield
"It is left by the constitution to the King's authority to grant or refuse a capitulation: if he refuses, and puts the inhabitants to the sword or exterminates them, all the lands belong to him. If he receives the inhabitants under his protection and grants them their property, ho has a power to fix such terms and conditions as he thinks proper. He is intrusted with making the treaty of peace: he may yield up the conquest, or retain it upon what terms he pleases. These powers no man ever disputed,
Counsel for the plaintiffs does not challenge this proposition
of the Attorney General, at least not in this court. He is
content to reserve his right to argue otherwise elsewhere.
In my view this authority concludes the matter. If the Crown
has a right to put all the inhabitants to the sword or to
exterminate them, then surely it has the right to suspend
from office any whom it has spared and put into office in
its service. And it has the right to delegate that power to
the Governor of this Colony. The only question then is whether
by the use of the word "suspend" simpliciter in the Letters
Patent the Crown has intended the suspension to be without pay.
(13) In Wallwork v. Fielding
the Watch Committee
suspended a police officer under powers conferred by the
(12) Extracts from 1 Cowp. 24 are set out in
Commonwealth and Colonial Law by Sir Kenneth Roberts-Wray
at p.929
(13) [1922] 2 K.B. 66