920
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL,
No. S. 458.-The following Bill was read a first time at a meeting of the Council held on the 24th November, 1938 :-
Short title.
Amendment of s. 3 (1) of Ordinance
No. 13 of 1938.
A BILL
INTITULED
[No. 24-2.11.38.-1.]
An Ordinance to amend the Sedition Ordinance, 1938.
BE it enacted by the Governor of Hong Kong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:
1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Sedition Amend- ment Ordinance, 1938.
2. Section 3 of the Sedition Ordinance, 1938, is amended-
(a) by the repeal of the words "But it is not a seditious intention in the eighteenth line of sub-section (1) thereof, and the substitution of the following words therefor
"But an act, speech or publication is not seditious by reason only that it intends";
(b) by the repeal of the proviso at the end of sub-section (1) thereof.
Objects and Reasons.
1. Doubts have been expressed as to the effect of the proviso in section 3 (1) of the principal Ordinance, on the ground that it may be understood as nullifying to a large extent the provisions of the second part of the definition "seditious intention" which state what is not a seditious intention.
2. In order to remove these doubts, clause 2 of this Bill repeals the proviso and amends the second part of the definition accordingly.
C. G. ALABAster,
Attorney General.
November, 1938.