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that any officer appointed to the substantive post of Crown Counsel, Magistrate or Assistant Crown Solicitor, should be made to understand that he may be called upon to function in any of the scale appointments in the Judicial or Legal es- tablishment of the Colony. The adoption of the proposal, however, would need decision as to who will be the actual head of department of any "legal officer". This aspect does not seem, as far as I have learned from Malaya and Singapore, to have been completely determined. I wonder what arrangement has been contemplated in the African territories? It seems to me very necessary from a personnel point of view as to e.g. matters such as Annual Confidential Reports, housing, salaries, passages and allocation to duty in the Judicial, Legal or Registrar General's department, that somebody should be the head of department. The answer seems to be that the Attorney General should be such person. The despatch going Home on my Memorandum will, I think, adopt the "legal officer" proposal and suggest that for personnel purposes the Attorney General will be the head of the department for all legal officers, i.e. the holders of all soale appointments.
Ref. paras. 7 and 8. My proposals for the areation of the appointment of legal draftsman have been rather influenced by local personalities because I have in mind an actual individual, Botelho, a locally qualified Solicitor, who is now an Assistant Crow Solicitor. My intention was that the post should be created now by terming this officer legal draftsman instead of Assistant Crown Solicitor, and making the legal draftsman a super scale post in substitution for the post of Crown Solicitor when the time comes for the abolition of the latter.
Ref. para. 9. In the interval we have rather gone ahead on the matter of law revision and a Bill has been approved by Ex. Co. and should soon go to Leg. Co. which appoints 4 Commissioners for the revision of the laws, i.e., Attorney General, Solicitor General, and 2 Assistant Crown Solicitors (Botelho and Sainsbury). We think that we can get on with the work in this way. Preparatory work, largely clerical, can take place between now and October, thereafter by my own return from leave and the return of others, plus the filling of vacant appointments, we anticipate that one of the Commissioners (Botelho) can be seconded whole time for the revision.
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Ref. para. 10. I am afraid that my Memorandum at para.8 is not easily understood exoept locally. The paragraph really tries to deal with the tradition which is fairly rooted in this Colony that there will always be a mmber of super scale posts which can be filled by Solicitors who begin and finish their service in Hong Kong. This Colony is only now getting accustomed to the incursion of appointees from outside to the senior posts. The despatch that is going Hame on the whole subject will do something to clarify my paragraph 8.
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Yours in
JBG/FMF.
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