3
8.
Indeed the judge declared that the 1936 amendments, at least in relation to the added words "as so extended", were not merely unnecessary, but were such as to "repugn the United Kingdom Acts". Since it is not actually the case that the words "as so extended" are inconsistent with the state of the United Kingdom legislation (indeed those words were principally designed to reiterate what had already been done in the United Kingdom) what was presumably meant was that the 1936 amendment was based on the misconception that local legislation was necessary to extend the Extradition Acts to Hong Kong.
Conclusion
9.
The net result is that the addition of the penultimate paragraph of the preamble to Cap. 236 is now seen to have been unnecessary; further, because the 1936 amendments have never been endorsed by an Order in Council of the kind envisaged by section 18 of the 1870 Act, their legal effect must be questionable. Consequently the best course is to delete them, so that the Extradition (Hong Kong) Ordinance (Cap. 236) reverts to the form in which it substantially was when originally enacted.
10.
The question then arises as to whether such a re-amendment ought to be endorsed by Order in Council under section 18 of the 1870 Act, or whether an Order in Council would in such circumstances be redundant.
Prisons for the purpose of extradition
11.
These
At the same time consideration should be given to seeking endorsement by Order in Council of the reference in section 4 of the Ordinance to "every prison for the time being set apart as such under the Prison Ordinance". words were inserted by amendment in 1937, and if they require endorsement it is by virtue of section 18 of the Extradition Act 1870. Section 17(3) of the Act, however, can be construed as making unnecessary any endorsement by Order in Council of the words in question since those words merely reiterate in local legislation what the Act already provides.
Main Points for decision
12.
The main questions now are
(a) whether to draft amendments to the Extradition
(Hong Kong) Ordinance (Cap. 236) to delete earlier amendments made to the Ordinance by the Counterfeit Currency (Convention) Ordinance (No. 20 of 1936);