CO129-449 - Governor Sir May & Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1918 [7-9] — Page 386

2

N-CONFIDENTIAL.

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23 CCT :8)

GOVERNMENT HOUSE.

HONGKONG. 2nd. September, 1918,

3.4 L

26974

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·

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Confidential Despatch of the 22nd. June on the subject of the complaints that have been made of the Tyler

inordinate delays in dealing with litigation in the Supreme Court.

2.

I regret to find that in spite of the opinions expressed by the whole of the Bar, the system of appointment under which the Bench is usually recruited, is not recognised in your Despatch as the principal cause of the un- -antisfactory condition of the administration of justice in the Supreme Court.

I am convinced that until the defect is corrected, under which very important actions in Original Jurisdiction are liable to be, and as a fact usually are, tried by Judges who either never have been in private practice as Barristers, or have been unsuccessful therein, a real and permanent improvement in the present unsatisfactory conditions will never be effect; and I venture to think that even if the conditions of secrecy under which the Bar have expressed to me their opinions on such a delicate subject permitted the communication to the Chief Justice which you suggest in paragraph 4 of your Despatch, no useful purpose would be serv-

-ed

RIGHT HONOURABLE

WALTER LONG, M.P.,

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