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With regard to clause 3 of the regulations
made by the Governor of Hongkong, the Army Council
are of opinion that it is not within the powers
given to the Governor by the Ordinance.
Under
Clause 4 of the Hongkong Ordinances No.7 of 1904,
the Governor has the power of making regulations
defining offences and imposing punishments for
breach of the regulations, but the Council are of
opinion that there is no power to take the persons
concerned out of the operation of the ordinary-
Civil law, and the enforcement of all such regula-
tions must rest with the Civil Courts.
Moreover
even on the assumption that this difficulty could
be surmounted by amendment of the Ordinance, they
concur in Lord Lansdowne's view that it is undesir-
able to impose military law upon persons in the
position of these interned men.
The Council further urge that, if it should
prove to be necessary, in order to meet the exi-
gencies of the case, that certain further offences
should be created which would not be offences accord-
ing to the civil Law of the Colony and that certain
summary penalties should be imposed for the committal
of any such offences, these latter should be spe-
cifically laid down and defined by the Governor's
regulations, together with the penalties to be im-
posed in each case, which should be enforceable by
the ordinary civil tribunals,
I am to state, for the information of Mr. Secre-
tary Lyttelton, that Lord Lansdowne concurs generally
in the observations of the Army Council. With
regard to Clause 3 of the regulations made by the
Governor, His Lordship has been independently ad-
vised that the Governor cannot under the Hongkong
Ordinances No.7 of 1904 Section 4 make regulations
applying any law which is not part of the ordinary
body of municipal law of the Colony and that he can-
not apply a substantive statute to a class of per-
sone to whom that statute by its own terms does not
apply;
e.g. he cannot apply an act which is specifi-
should
cally
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